By picking up the landing site on Mars, NASA is now one step closer to the 2020 Mars rover mission. This American space agency initially shortlisted eight landing points at their workshop held on August 2015. Later on February 10 at the third workshop on Monrovia, California NASA announced that they have narrowed down the list of potential landing sites from eight to three.
The main purpose of this mission is to dig the land and scoop up the soil samples of mars for future research. These three drilling sites include Northeast Syrtis, Jezero crater, and Columbia Hills. NASA first published about their announcement in the journal of Nature. Although, NASA haven’t announced their exact drill site yet but, they will confirm it one or two years before the departure.
Scientists are now depending on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) to decide the perfect position for landing. Scientist from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena and co-chairman of the workshop, Dr. Matt Golombek said in a statement,“From the point of view of evaluating potential landing sites, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is the perfect spacecraft for getting all the information needed, you just can't overstate the importance of MRO for landing-site selection”.
According to I4U News, scientists and engineers are planning to land on that location which was once used to be a habitable zone and showing signs of water or other organic compounds. NASA Arranged a polling at their workshop. By analyzing the images and data sent by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, scientists and other board members gave the maximum number of votes to the Jezero crater.
MRO has captured more than 224,000 images during its orbital rotation. These images will help scientists to select the best candidate for the mission. Mars 2020 rover is not more than a size of a small car. It runs on six wheels and a robotic arm. It is assembled with advanced scientific instruments to search for past microbial life and analyze minerals on rock samples. Scientists are planning to launch in the summer of 2020 and it will take seven months in space to reach its destination.
