NASA -- The space agency is currently working on the space rovers that will be sent to explore specific areas in space. They have spent several months working on the Mars rover to prepare it for its launch in 2020. The rover is specifically designed to perform multiple functions as the data it will be able to collect will further the knowledge that the experts have of the Red Planet and all it's potential for human use.
The Mars 2020 rover is expected to be launched by the summer of next year. Ahead of the launch next year, scientists are already talking about the design of the rover and how it is expected to have a safe landing, acquire all the samples of the planet's surface and eventually be sent back to Earth. Its safe return to the planet as well as the data it has collected will truly benefit the research of the Red Planet. The key part of the sampling process has already been installed on the rover.
According to the press release by NASA, the bit carousel has already been installed on the upcoming rover by the Mars 2020 team. This is the key component that will allow scientists to collect various samples from the surface of Mars. the bit carousel, as its name suggests, features a variety of drill bits that will allow the rover to maneuver the kind of bit needed to accomplish various tasks.
There are nine drill bits recently installed on the rover. Six of which are designed for the coring method, while the other two are used for the abrading process. One of the nine will be used for the regolith, the process of drilling a mixture of soil and rock. The abrader, as NASA explains, will be used to deal with the top layer of soil on the surface. It will scrape of the top covering of the soil to find out more about the unweathered surface of the planet.
The other bits - all those for coring as well as the one for the regolith -- will practically be used to put all the samples in collection tubes. These tubes will be placed inside the bits before they are positioned for drilling. Al the tubes will be filled with samples from the surface before these samples are collected from the tubes, processed and moved to its storage space in the rover.
Assuming that everything goes according to plan, NASA will launch the Mars 2020 rover in July of 2020, with the intent to land on Mars on February 18, 2021. The space agency is anticipating month after month of extensive preparation to "fine-tine" everything on the rover before it is sent off.
