NASA to Search for Life on Mars in 2020 - PC Magazine

NASA on Tuesday outlined the major goals for a proposed Mars Rover mission in 2020, with the principal one being the search for signs of past life on our planetary neighbor. The space agency will also seek to collect samples which may someday be returned to Earth and "demonstrate technology for future human exploration of the Red Planet," NASA said in a statement. A 154-page document prepared by 19 scientists and engineers on the Mars 2020 Science Definition Team further outlines a mission concept that "could accomplish several high-priority planetary science goals" while also serving as "a major step" in sending human explorers to Mars by the 2030s as proposed by President Barack Obama. "Crafting the science and exploration goals is a crucial milestone in preparing for our next major Mars mission. The objectives determined by NASA with the input from this team will become the basis later this year for soliciting proposals to provide instruments to be part of the science payload on this exciting step in Mars exploration," NASA's associate administrator for science John Grunsfeld said in a statement. The architects of NASA's 2020 Mars mission proposed sticking with a similar same rover design (pictured below) being used in the current Curiosity expedition to "help minimize mission costs and risks and deliver a rover that can accomplish the mission objectives." But the payload and scientific instrumentation aboard the proposed rover, which will be tasked with identifying biosignatures in the environment around its landing site, will be more advanced than any scientific equipment NASA has ever placed upon Mars. The space agency said it will hold an open competition to determine the gear, instruments, and experiments that will be part of the 2020 mission. The expedition could attempt to collect and cache more than 30 rock core and soil samples, which a future mission might be charged with retrieving and delivering to scientists on Earth. The chairman of the Mars 2020 Science Definition Team said while the "mission concept does not presume that life ever existed on Mars," it would be worthwhile to search for signs of it anyway. "[G]iven the recent Curiosity findings, past Martian life seems possible, and we should begin the difficult endeavor of seeking the signs of life. No matter what we learn, we would make significant progress in understanding the circumstances of early life existing on Earth and the possibilities of extraterrestrial life," said Jack Mustard, a professor of geological sciences at Brown University. In addition to searching for signs of past life, the mission will seek to learn more about Mars ahead of a potential human voyage to the planet. The Science Definition Team said possible work in this area could include learning more about dangers posed by Martian dust and experimenting with the collection of carbon dioxide as "a resource for making oxygen and rocket fuel." via Science - Google News http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNGqAOYyGHtGcxPssthRdsAUq1J3ug&url=http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2421539,00.asp

Put the internet to work for you. via Personal Recipe 2954071