#NEWS ROVER COLUMBIA SOFTWARE#

The debate over Columbia Hills reached a crescendo just prior to the workshopвЂ™s close, when a landing site steering group vetoed the locale-a decision that was subsequently overturned. Paired with other observations, that sign of volcanism suggests a hot spring was active in the area long ago, boosting the siteвЂ™s potential for harboring signatures of past Martian life. Advocates of that place explained that prior to Spirit becoming bogged down in sand and eventually expiring there, the robot found an old, eroded volcanic ash deposit. Of the trio of sites, the thought of spurning virgin territory for a robotic return to the Columbia Hills spurred heated chatter. Computer artwork of Mars 2020 rover with outstretched robotic arm. Northeast Syrtis Major is a huge shield volcano abutting an immense impact crater, in a region thought to have once been warm and wet. Jezero Crater hosts an ancient dried-up lake that could possibly be a repository of past microbial life. вЂњNE Syrtis and Jezero were the highest-rated sites,вЂќ says Ken Farley, Mars 2020вЂ™s project scientist and professor of geochemistry at Caltech. All three lie near Martian equator, a region more accessible to surface missions than other parts of the planet. The top three sites still in the running for Mars 2020 are Northeast Syrtis Major, Jezero Crater and Columbia Hills/Gusev Crater-the latter a place already surveyed by NASAвЂ™s Spirit rover from 2004 to 2010. After days of deliberation, debate, polling and backroom banter among a select group of Mars officialdom, their announcement of the top landing sites at last arrived, whittling the previous set of eight candidates down to just three areas.

#NEWS ROVER COLUMBIA SOFTWARE#

The Mars 2020 rover puts on the brakes, utilizing its sky crane coupled with onboard navigation software to autonomously steer clear of surface hazards and land safely.Д®xperts watched the proceedings from around the world, anticipating the fateful decision that is the closest thing in planetary science to the puff of white smoke that emanates from the VaticanвЂ™s Sistine Chapel chimney announcing the election ofВ a new pope.

A fourth workshop to ruminate further about the remaining candidate sites is slated for early to mid-2018, after which NASAвЂ™s leadership will pick the roverвЂ™s final destination. From February 8 to 10 some 250 planetary scientists and spacecraft engineers gathered here for their third confab-the penultimate meeting before Mars 2020вЂ™s final landing site is chosen. Twice before, mission planners have gathered to winnow their overlong list of candidate landing sites, each time emerging with a smaller number of high-priority places to go. Once gathered, the precious samples will unquestionably beckon us back to Mars, even if no one yet knows what secrets they shall hold or whether humans or robots will retrieve them. Besides poking around its landing site for signs of past habitability and Martian life, the rover will also select and cache samples for an eventual return to Earth at some yet-to-be-determined date. Wherever the rover finds itself in 2021 will likely shape the future of Mars exploration for decades to come. The robot explorer is expected to touch down on the Red Planet in February 2021, but there is one key detail that remains to be decided: Where exactly it will land. NASAвЂ™s next major interplanetary mission is the Mars 2020 rover.

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