NASA’s Mars 2020 will be a great technology demonstrator, but is it right for astrobiology?
At the recent Astrobiology Science Conference in Chicago, Dave Beaty and Lindsay Hays of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory asked attendees for their input in narrowing down suitable landing sites for NASA’s Mars 2020 mission. The goal of this JPL-led project is to explore a site likely to have once been habitable, seek signs of past life, then fill a cache with rock and soil samples to be returned later to Earth. The mission will also demonstrate technology needed for future human and robotic Mars exploration. Mars 2020 builds on the expertise gained from the Curiosity rover to search more directly for signs of past microbial life.
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