NASA has announced the list of instruments that are selected for the Mars 2020 rover, a planned $1.9 billion roving laboratory similar to the Mars Curiosity rover currently cruising the Red Planet.
The Mars 2020 rover is scheduled to launch in July, 2020.
NASA made the selection of 7 instruments from 58 proposals received from researchers and engineers worldwide.
An MIT oxygen-creating instrument has also been selected to fly on the upcoming Mars 2020 mission.
One of the main goals of the Mars 2020 mission will be to determine the potential habitability of the planet for human visitors. To that end, the MOXIE instrument will attempt to make oxygen out of native resources in order to demonstrate that it could be done on a larger scale for future missions.
NASA’s Mars Exploration Program seeks to characterize and understand Mars as a dynamic system, including its present and past environment, climate cycles, geology and biological potential. In parallel, NASA is developing the human spaceflight capabilities needed for future round-trip missions to Mars.
