NASA starts building its life hunting 2020 Mars Rover

On July 15, 2016, NASA has announced that the initial design of the life hunting 2020 Mars Rover has cleared an extensive review process and is now all set to begin the final design and construction process.

Mission team members believe that the construction of this six-wheeled rover will be completed by the end of 2019, and it will be sent to Mars in August 2020.

If everything goes well, the rover will have a touchdown in February 2021, and the spot in which it will be landed will be finalized later.

From then, the rover will explore the surface of Mars for the next two years, and is expected to give many unknown vital information about the planet.

nasa life hunting rover

Kenneth Farley, project scientist of Mars 2020 told that the main aim of the rover will be to find the signs of life on the Martian surface.

The planet is now very cold and radiation blasted, but previously it was not the case. Mars had a habitable lake and stream system millions of years ago.

Experts believe that the planet was warm and life-friendly years ago, and due to unknown reasons, everything came to an end.

The rover will carry seven science instruments which will help it to study about the past life on Mars. It will also collect samples from red planet for future study.

Another equipment which will be carried by the rover is Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resources Utilization Experiment.

This device will generate Oxygen from the atmosphere of Mars which is completely filled with Carbon Dioxide. NASA believes that this method can be used by human travelers who may reach Mars in the coming years.

NASA estimates an expense of $1.9 billion for this mission.

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Anand Narayanaswamy

Anand is a seasoned journalist with over 15 years of experience in technology reporting. He holds a Master's degree in Computer Science and has worked with several leading tech publications. Anand oversees the editorial direction of The Hoops News, ensuring that the content meets the highest standards of journalism. In his free time, he enjoys reading about quantum computing and playing chess.