Four Different Mars Missions Planned For Launch In 2020 Written 3 January 2020
Artist’s concept of the Mars Helicopter, a small, autonomous rotorcraft, slated to launch on NASA's Mars 2020 rover mission in July 2020. | NASA/JPL-Caltech
The Daily Mail (UK) reports that there are four “major missions bound for Mars this year” from the USA, Europe, China and the UAE. NASA “is launching the Mars 2020 Rover and the Mars Helicopter Scout to gather rock samples for an eventual return to Earth.” A joint European Space Agency and Russian Space Agency mission will “launch the Rosalind Franklin rover using the Kazachok lander” in order to help “find out whether life has ever existed on” Mars. China’s mission is the “Mars Global Remote Sensing Orbiter and Small Rover.” This mission, set to launch in July, “will carry ground-penetrating radar, multi spectral camera, a Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy instrument and payloads for detecting the climate and magnetic environment.” Lastly, the UAE is planning on “launching the Hope Mars Mission orbiter on a Japanese rocket in July 2020.” The “probe will study the climate of the Red Planet every day and through seasonal cycles to better asses weather events in the lower atmosphere.”
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