NASA's Mars 2020 rover mission is scheduled for launch from July 17th to August 5th, 2020 and will land on Mars on February 18th, 2021. Following landing, the duration of the mission is at least one Mars year, which is approximately 687 Earth days.

The rover has essentially the same basic design as the Curiosity rover from the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission, but whereas Curiosity has searched only for signs of habitable conditions, the 2020 mission will also seek signs of past microbial life itself.

In addition to searching for signs of life it will conduct experiments and investigations in preparation of future human exploration of the planet.

Science objectives

The science objectives of the mission are:

Computer-design drawing (from July 2016) for NASA's Mars 2020 rover. >Click here for highest resolution. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

Looking for habitability:
Explore an astrobiologically relevant ancient environment on Mars to decipher its geological processes and history, including the assessment of past habitability.

Seeking biosignatures:
Assess the potential for preservation of biosignatures (signs of past life) within the selected geological environment, and search for those signs.

Caching samples:
Collect core rock and soil samples with potential evidence of past life and store the most promising of them in sealed containers, sample caches, which can be collected and returned to Earth by a future mission. The samples will also be representative of the geological diversity of the local environments at the chosen landing site.

Preparing for humans:
Contribute to the preparation for human exploration of Mars by testing the catalytic extraction of oxygen from the Martian atmosphere with the MOXIE instrument, and by characterizing the size and morphology of the atmospheric dust particles in order to understand their effects on surface systems and human health.

Read about the contributions of the Mars Group >>

The Mars group has contributed instruments and magnetic properties experiments to several NASA Mars missions, including to the lander and three rovers seen below.

Through the menu on the left you can read about each of the missions, their objectives and results, and the contributions of the Mars group. On the right you can find links to NASA's pages.

The image below shows a size comparison of four different Mars rovers and landers.

• The Sojourner rover was - together with a lander not shown here - part of the Pathfinder mission, which landed in 1997.
• The Mars Exploration Rovers were the two identical twins Spirit and Opportunity, which landed on opposite sides of Mars in 2004.
• The Phoenix lander was the first of NASA's small and low-cost scout missions. It touched down near the northern arctic plains on Mars in 2008.
• The Mars Science Laboratory rover Curiosity touched down on Mars in 2012.

The Curiosity model seen here is a version from 2008. See Curiosity rover for a picture of a newer test model, as well as test models and flight spares of Spirit/Opportunity and Sojourner.

A lander and three rovers from NASA's Mars Exploration Program, all with contributions form the NBI Mars group. Click image for higher resolution. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.