Instruct: Given a question, retrieve documents that can help answer the question.
Query: When is the next rover heading to Mars?
Mars 2020 is a Mars rover mission by NASA's Mars Exploration Program with a planned launch in July or August 2020.[1] It will investigate an astrobiologically relevant ancient environment on Mars, investigate its surface geological processes and history, including the assessment of its past habitability, the possibility of past life on Mars, and the potential for preservation of biosignatures within accessible geological materials.[5][6] It will cache sample containers along its route for a potential future Mars sample-return mission.[6][7][8]
"Curiosity" has an advanced payload of scientific equipment on Mars. It is the fourth NASA unmanned surface rover sent to Mars since 1996. Previous successful Mars rovers are "Sojourner" from the Mars Pathfinder mission (1997), and "Spirit" (2004–2010) and "Opportunity" (2004–present) rovers from the Mars Exploration Rover mission.
When NASA's landers and rovers land safely on Mars, Electra can provide precise Doppler data which, when combined with "Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter" position information, can accurately determine the location of the lander or rover on the surface of Mars. Electra can also provide UHF coverage to Mars landers and rovers on the surface using its nadir-pointed (pointed straight down at the surface) antenna. This coverage would be important to landed crafts on Mars that might not have sufficient radio power to communicate directly with Earth by themselves.
The orbiter was initially proposed to be launched in September 2022 to link ground controllers with rovers and landers and extend mapping capabilities expected to be lost when the "Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter" and "2001 Mars Odyssey" stop functioning, but officials elected to focus on flying a sample-return mission first and incorporate a Mars telecom orbiter in that mission architecture, now envisioned for the late 2020s.
In another example the United States Geological Survey (USGS) used a viewshed analysis to assist NASA's Mars Exploration Rover (MER) project. When NASA needed to find appropriate landing spots for the Mars rovers, they turned to the USGS to map the best possible sites. Part of the analysis included a viewshed of the possible site selections. In this case the viewshed indicates the areas which may or may not be visible by the Mars rovers from each landing site (MER Landing Site Viewshed Analysis).
In 1963-1973 A.L.Kemurdzhian headed works on the design and creation of the self-propelled automatic chassis of Soviet Moon rovers and Mars rovers. Under his leadership planetary rovers developed as robotic transport vehicles of space appropriation, and his group developed the first-ever planet research vehicles - «Lunokhods», Prop-M Rover (Apparatus of the Cross-Country Capability Estimate), apparatus for the jump movement at the moon of Mars – Phobos. Devices designed under his leadership also yielded data on physicomechanical properties of soil of the Moon and Venus.
Astrobiology Mars Astrobiology Explorer-Cacher, a cancelled astrobiology rover Climate of Mars ExoMars rover, to be launched in 2020 Exploration of Mars Life on Mars List of missions to Mars Mars Global Remote Sensing Orbiter and Small Rover Mars Orbiter Mission Water on Mars
Another suggested feature under study is "the sample rendezvous capture and return capability." The samples cached by the Mars 2020 rover would be placed in Mars orbit by a future Mars ascent vehicle. From there, the orbiter would rendezvous, transfer the samples into a capsule and send it back to Earth.
The expedition’s main objective was to deliver the Mars Institute’s "HMP Okarian" rover (aka "Moon-1 Humvee Rover"), a modified Humvee serving as a planetary pressurized rover simulator, from the North American mainland to the Haughton-Mars Project Research Station on Devon Island. Once delivered, the "HMP Okarian" would be used for research - through simulations of planetary excursion missions - to plan future human Moon and Mars exploration. The Northwest Passage Drive Expedition was proposed by HMP principal investigator Pascal Lee when rover operations on Devon Island using the HMP’s first Humvee alone, the "Mars-1", proved too risky, and a second Humvee (the "HMP Okarian") became needed at the HMP site.
When a spacecraft lander begins operations on Mars, the passing Martian days (sols) are tracked using a simple numerical count. The two Viking missions, Mars Phoenix and the Mars Science Laboratory rover "Curiosity" count the sol on which each lander touched down as "Sol 0", as does the InSight mission. Mars Pathfinder and the two Mars Exploration Rovers instead defined touchdown as "Sol 1".
On 26 November 2011, NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission was successfully launched for Mars. The mission successfully landed the robotic "Curiosity" rover on the surface of Mars in August 2012. The rover is currently helping to determine whether Mars could ever have supported life, and search for evidence of past or present life on Mars.
' Rover – July 4, 1997; "Last Earth Contact" – September 27, 1997.
Mars landing coordinates: ' Rover – January 4, 2004; "Last Earth Contact" – May 25, 2011.
Mars landing coordinates: ' Rover – January 25, 2004; CURRENTLY ACTIVE.
Mars landing coordinates: "" Lander – May 25, 2008; "Last Earth Contact" – November 10, 2008.
Mars landing coordinates: ' Rover – August 6, 2012; CURRENTLY ACTIVE.
Mars landing coordinates: ()
An important date in its development was 2005, when the ESA council approved 650 million Euros for a Mars rover and static lander. At this time the idea was for a single launch bringing both a Mars Exploration Rover class rover and instrumented static lander to Mars with a simpler cruise stage;in this case the static lander both landed the rover and performed its own studies. However to accomplish its mission goals within the constraints of a Soyuz launcher, the rover was budgeted for 6 kg at one point. This led to the search for bigger rockets; the Ariane V, Atlas V, and Proton were evaluated. As heavier launchers were considered, heavier rovers from 180 even up to 600 kg were considered, and eventually the idea of test lander to offload risk from the rover lander was taken seriously and fit well with a two launch setup that allowed for a heavier orbiter and a heavier rover. Another factor was if the demonstrator should wait in Mars orbit for the Global dust storm to start. Early in the development, the idea was for the lander to be carried by a dedicated cruise stage called the "Carrier Module". Eventually, the Trace Gas Orbiter mission was merged into ExoMars becoming the mother-ship for the EDM.
A mid-range rover concept was originally included in the planning work of the Mars Architecture Tiger Team (MATT). By the time of the MATT-3 report in 2009, the potential mission was referred to with several different working names, including both 'Mid-Range Rover' and 'Mars Prospector Rover', and the mission concept was generically envisioned as including a single Mars Exploration Rover or Mars Science Laboratory-class rover with precision landing and sampling/caching capability. To provide a name that fit the mission concept better, it was changed in August 2009 from the generic Mid-Range Rover (MRR) to Mars Astrobiology Explorer-Cacher (MAX-C).
In April 2011, because of a budgeting crisis, a proposal was announced to fly only one rover in 2018 that would be larger than either of the vehicles in the paired concept, ExoMars (ESA) and MAX-C (NASA). One suggestion was that the new vehicle be built in Europe and take on a combination of European and USA instruments. NASA proposed to provide a launch rocket and the "Sky Crane" landing system. In February 2012, NASA terminated its participation in ExoMars due to budgetary cuts, and when Congress reinstated funding for Mars exploration after a loud outcry from planetary scientists and enthusiasts, NASA announced in December 2012 the Mars 2020 rover and, later, that it would indeed prepare a sample cache.
Crewed Mars rovers are vehicles for transporting people on the planet Mars, and have been conceptualized as part of human mission to that planet. Two types of crewed Mars rovers are pressurized and unpressurizedunpressurized designs may have open seating for a crew in Mars space suits, and another style has a pressurized interior for people to work without a space suit. Pressurized rovers have been envisioned for short trips from a Mars base, or they may be equipped to be more of a mobile base or laboratory. They are also called "manned Mars rovers"
Previous NASA Mars rovers became active only after the successful entry, descent and landing on the Martian surface. "Curiosity", on the other hand, was active when it touched down on the surface of Mars, employing the rover suspension system for the final set-down.
Spirit, also known as MER-A (Mars Exploration Rover – A) or MER-2, is a robotic rover on Mars, active from 2004 to 2010. It was one of two rovers of NASA's ongoing Mars Exploration Rover Mission. It landed successfully on Mars at 04:35 Ground UTC on January 4, 2004, three weeks before its twin, "Opportunity" (MER-B), which landed on the other side of the planet. Its name was chosen through a NASA-sponsored student essay competition. The rover became stuck in late 2009, and its last communication with Earth was sent on March 22, 2010.
After interest from a project scientist at ESA, she is simultaneously beginning to structure a
project that may see art on Mars for the next ExoMars Rover mission. Her
suggestion is to choreograph a dance for the robot on Mars for when the scientific mission is
over using its autonomous navigation system.
As part of the ExoMars program, ESA and the Russian Federal Space Agency plan to send the ExoMars rover in 2020 to search for evidence of past or present microscopic life on Mars.[96] The Mars 2020 rover mission by NASA will be launched in 2020, and it is based on the Mars Science Laboratory design. The scientific payload will be focused on astrobiology.[97] It will include a miniature robotic Mars Helicopter Scout. The 2020 Chinese Mars Mission is planned to comprise an orbiter, a lander and a small rover.[98] The United Arab Emirates will send an orbiter to Mars, the Hope Mars Mission, in 2020.[99][100] India's ISRO plans to send a follow-up mission to its Mars Orbiter Mission in the 2021–2022 timeframe; it is called Mars Orbiter Mission 2 (MOM-2). This mission will consist of an orbiter, and probably a rover.[101]
Opportunity began the year at the edge of Endeavour Crater's Cape York, and the total distance travelled since landing on Mars was . After completing work at Matijevic Hill the "Opportunity" rover headed south to the rim of Endeavour Crater. Next, the rover headed south across a gap in the rim to a place the researchers called Botany Bay, then up onto the next rim segment to the south. There are two hills to the south of it, one called Solander Point and farther south is Cape Tribulation. The current aim is for "Opportunity" to reach Solander Point before winter reaches the Martian southern hemisphere as the area has ground tilted to the north allowing the rover to stay active during the winter months. In addition Solander Point has a large geological stack for Opportunity to explore.
In April 2013, the rover passed through a three-week-long solar conjunction, when communication with Earth was blocked because of the Sun. The rover arm was positioned on a rock during that time so the APXS could collect data.
Crewed Mars rovers are a component of many designs for a human mission to the planet Mars. For example, the Austere Human Missions to Mars proposal proposed including two rovers on its unmanned power and logistics cargo lander. Each rover could hold a crew of two in a pressurized environment, with power coming from a Stirling radioisotope generator.
The USSR intended to have the first artificial satellite of Mars beating the planned American Mariner 8 and Mariner 9 Mars orbiters. In May 1971, one day after Mariner 8 malfunctioned at launch and failed to reach orbit, Cosmos 419 (Mars 1971C), a heavy probe of the Soviet Mars program M-71, also failed to launch. This spacecraft was designed as an orbiter only, while the next two probes of project M-71, Mars 2 and Mars 3, were multipurpose combinations of an orbiter and a lander with small skis-walking rovers that would be the first planet rovers outside the Moon. They were successfully launched in mid-May 1971 and reached Mars about seven months later. On November 27, 1971 the lander of Mars 2 crash-landed due to an on-board computer malfunction and became the first man-made object to reach the surface of Mars. On 2 December 1971, the Mars 3 lander became the first spacecraft to achieve a soft landing, but its transmission was interrupted after 14.5 seconds.[45]
The following table is a list of successful and unsuccessful Mars landers. As of 2018, 16 lander missions and 5 sub-landers (Rovers and Penetrators) attempted to land on Mars. Of 16 landers, only InSight Mars Lander is currently in operation on Mars. This list excludes rovers, such as Spirit ("Mars Exploration Rover-A"), Opportunity (Mars "Exploration Rover-B") and Curiosity ("Mars Science Laboratory").
The 2001 Surveyor lander spacecraft was built under contract to NASA by the Lockheed Martin corporation. Except for the solar arrays, the basic lander design is identical to that of the Mars Polar Lander, which had been intended to be the first of a series of low-cost "Mars Surveyor" landers sent to Mars. Prior to mission cancellation, cost overruns and technical problems caused the Lander design to be rescoped, and the planned large Athena rover was replaced by a small rover duplicating the "Sojourner" which was a part of the Mars Pathfinder mission. (The Athena did later make it to Mars, however, with two such rovers making up the Mars Exploration Rover Mission of 2004. The second of these, MER-B "Opportunity", landed at Mars Surveyor 2001 Lander's target site, Meridiani Planum.)
NASA's Mars Exploration Rover (MER) mission is an ongoing robotic space mission involving two Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, exploring the planet Mars. It began in 2003 with the launch of the two rovers: MER-A "Spirit" and MER-B "Opportunity"—to explore the Martian surface and geology; both landed on Mars at separate locations in January 2004. Both rovers far outlived their planned missions of 90 Martian solar days: MER-A "Spirit" was active until 2010, while MER-B "Opportunity" was active until 2018, and holds the record for the longest distance driven by any off-Earth wheeled vehicle.