Cache and Not Have: Subsequent Mars Rover to Collect Samples for Return to Earth Someday
ROVING FOR SAMPLES: NASA’s following Mars rover, set to launch in 2020, will acquire and keep Martian rock samples for eventual return to Earth. In September 2013, NASA issued a contact for proposals of devices to pack onboard the rover. Graphic: NASA/JPL-Caltech Have rover, need payload. That’s the condition of…
Curiosity Rover Samples Air for a Flavor of Mars Heritage
LASER BEAMS: A laboratory demonstration of the sample chamber in the Curiosity rover’s Tunable Laser Spectrometer, one of the two instruments returning new data on Mars’s ambiance. Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech It’s time to update the list of ingredients in Martian air. In late 2012 NASA’s Curiosity rover drew air into its…