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| This computer-generated view depicts part of Mars at the boundary between darkness and daylight, with an area including Gale Crater beginning to catch morning light. [Credit: NASA] |
Washington: Building on the success of Curiosity's Red Planet landing,
NASA has announced plans for a robust multi-year Mars program, including a new
robotic science rover set to launch in 2020. This announcement affirms the
agency's commitment to a bold exploration program that meets our nation's
scientific and human exploration objectives.
"The Obama
administration is committed to a robust Mars exploration program," NASA
Administrator Charles Bolden said. "With this next mission, we're ensuring
America remains the world leader in the exploration of the Red Planet, while
taking another significant step toward sending humans there in the 2030s."
The planned portfolio
includes the Curiosity and Opportunity rovers; two NASA spacecraft and
contributions to one European spacecraft currently orbiting Mars; the 2013
launch of the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) orbiter to study
the Martian upper atmosphere; the Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations,
Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) mission, which will take the first look
into the deep interior of Mars; and participation in ESA's 2016 and 2018
ExoMars missions, including providing "Electra" telecommunication
radios to ESA's 2016 mission and a critical element of the premier astrobiology
instrument on the 2018 ExoMars rover.
The plan to design
and build a new Mars robotic science rover with a launch in 2020 comes only
months after the agency announced InSight, which will launch in 2016, bringing
a total of seven NASA missions operating or being planned to study and explore
our Earth-like neighbor.
The 2020 mission will
constitute another step toward being responsive to high-priority science goals
and the president's challenge of sending humans to Mars orbit in the 2030s.
The future rover
development and design will be based on the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL)
architecture that successfully carried the Curiosity rover to the Martian
surface this summer. This will ensure mission costs and risks are as low as
possible, while still delivering a highly capable rover with a proven landing
system. The mission will constitute a vital component of a broad portfolio of
Mars exploration missions in development for the coming decade.
The mission will
advance the science priorities of the National Research Council's 2011
Planetary Science Decadal Survey and responds to the findings of the Mars
Program Planning Group established earlier this year to assist NASA in
restructuring its Mars Exploration Program.
"The challenge
to restructure the Mars Exploration Program has turned from the seven minutes
of terror for the Curiosity landing to the start of seven years of
innovation," NASA's associate administrator for science, and astronaut John
Grunsfeld said. "This mission concept fits within the current and
projected Mars exploration budget, builds on the exciting discoveries of
Curiosity, and takes advantage of a favorable launch opportunity."
The specific payload
and science instruments for the 2020 mission will be openly competed, following
the Science Mission Directorate's established processes for instrument
selection. This process will begin with the establishment of a science
definition team that will be tasked to outline the scientific objectives for
the mission.
This mission fits
within the five-year budget plan in the president's Fiscal Year 2013 budget
request, and is contingent on future appropriations.
Plans also will
include opportunities for infusing new capabilities developed through
investments by NASA's Space Technology Program, Human Exploration and
Operations Mission Directorate, and contributions from international partners.