NASA's Curiosity rover is still science-ing it up on Mars, but the space agency is already scheming their next trip.
Mars 2020, which NASA plans to launch in July of 2020 for a February 2021 arrival, just entered its final design phase.
It's an exciting mission for scientists, who will have a whole new set of tools to better understand the planet's history. "The central scientific objective is seeking the signs of life and preparing this collection of samples for potential return to Earth," said Kenneth Farley, a project scientist on the Mars 2020 team, during a Facebook live video NASA hosted today.
One of the most important pieces of that goal is better understanding the rocks on Mars. The rover of the Mars 2020 mission doesn't have a name yet. Coming up with one is on NASA's to-do list along with the rest of mission preparation. But whatever it's called, it will have a very cool tool: a laser.
The team that runs Mars Curiosity's laser "ChemCam," which the rover uses to analyze rocks, has designed an improved version called "SuperCam."
Like ChemCam, SuperCam will be able to use its laser to identify the elements in a piece of rock. But SuperCam will for the first time allow scientists to also identify the minerals in a sample. That will help analysts figure out whether the organic compounds they're looking at were created by Martian life or by a fluke.
SuperCam will use its laser to vaporize a small area of rock. As the vapor cools, it will release light the instrument can analyze to identify the elements and minerals in the sample.
It's not just SuperCam that improves upon the Curiosity rover's existing technology — the entire 2020 rover model builds on what NASA developed for the current mission while adding new features and replacing parts with newer, better ones. That means that in just five years, we may know way more about the details of Martian history. And that could shape all our hopes for its future.