For Life

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a capsule come Exactly a year from now, hurtling through the atmosphere of Mars with The Americans , " the next big rover. If it survived, to describe the "seven minutes of terror", which have their origin on The Surface , the new robot promises to be a very different mission to all those who have gone before you it.

Because, although (a new name) looks like a simple copy of the, of its goals to take a decisive turn in the direction of answering The Most basic questions: is there or was there ever Life on the Red Planet ?

Recent studies have focused on the characterization of the "habitability" of Mars .

That is to say, that this asked before missions only, whether past conditions were conducive to biology. A less direct approach.

Mars 2020 , on The Other hand, is to employ an explicit hunt For Life Traces .

Satellite image: Jezero shows strong Traces of The Past , The Presence of a lake and delta

Undoubtedly, it will be a difficult quest. Evidence For Life on the early earth always attracts a certain amount of skepticism, even controversy, and laboratory equipment is the size of a large room, it is often necessary to secure a claim.

So how will people react when a rover finds something fascinating print in a billion year-old rock, on another planet?

2020-mission scientist Jim Bell of Arizona State University is honest in his reply: "We make a claim about a biosignatur, but it is not clear to me, who would believe us," he said.

"So, let's get back to The Samples . So, if those who made extraordinary claims, Can be verified. "

This is the strategy for Mars 2020 : Can you Find something of value and cache to notice it is for the later return to this great earth laboratories.

graphic: Mars 2020 looks the same as Curiosity , but it is a step-up in function

The Rover rumbling across Equatorial Jezero crater, the search for rocks that look as if it could be put in The Presence of biology.

The Best examples are to be drilled and sealed in small tubes the size of a whiteboard Marker. These canisters will then pick up placed on The Surface for a future mission and to take home.

But what would be the appearance of the putative biosignatures?

A good example, says Katie Stack Morgan, possibly remnants of the finely layered dome-like structures, the ancient communities of microbes. On earth, we know, are such structures as stromatolites, which form at the edges of salt lakes and lagoons.

It is all about the recognition of telltale patterns, structures and chemical compositions, The Deputy project scientist, told Bbc News : "What [these microbes] in The Rock -plate very thin layers, but with concentrations of certain elements or organic, in which repeated intervals represented that the ancient fossilized microbial Mat. So how, this Mat will grow, that you, in principle, the shape of the rocks. And so, we are looking for these fine blades with a concentration of organic or certain items that are not expected, if these things were only abiotic, or were not with Life . "

stromatolites are formed on The Edge of a quiet lake or lagoon

When Curiosity landed in Gale crater in 2012, scientists were unsure about their history, such as the mountain in its center is formed and what is the influence of water played might have in the evolution of The Deep depression.

Jezero brings far more certainty. Satellite images clearly show the outlines of a once Great Lake and The Delta , lined interior.

Tempting the sliver of carbonate rocks, which seem to mark what would have been the palaeo-lake shores.

"When we think of carbonates on earth, we think of the reefs, and we think the flat warm water," said Dr. stack Morgan.

"We don't know it, we find the reefs on Mars , but we think, with these shallow water where carbonates have precipitated, could it be that we had organisms, the use of the carbonate-just like we do here on earth in shallow-water environments. "

Curiosity has amazed sludge us with his discoveries of the river-pebbles-and the lake, point-to times of abundant water on Mars in its early history.

But The Veteran rover-instruments - frustrating - Can only grasp a course, or the mass, look at the chemistry, the Fort at the time. It must crush your samples before the test. 2020, alternatively, to carry instruments to examine the in The Rock ' s the fine-scale Textures , while at the same time mapping the detailed elemental distribution within these Textures .

Mars 2020 -scientists recently some of the earth's oldest stromatolites in Australia

in fact, inspected, everything about Mars in 2020 should be a step to what was before, says Dr. Bell.

The Arizona scientists leads to the main camera system that sits on The Rover mast.

"you look like the mast Cams on Curiosity ; they are in the same place. But in contrast to the Curiosity cameras, too zoom from wide-angle all the way to telephoto. So, we collect a lot more stereo-and 3D-data. Everything was possible, with Curiosity , but it was a little awkward.

We also have microphones. We are confident that we will be able to record some of The Sounds of the entry, descent, and landing; and some of The Sounds go to the merge of the sound with the video that we Can take. "

The Rover has recently arrived at Nasa's Kennedy Space Center in Florida to its final preparations for the Start. This takes place between 17 July and 5. August.

It is a seven-month cruise to the Red Planet .

the engineers have targeted a touchdown shortly after 20:30 GMT, Thursday, 18. February, up to the year 2021.

to be lowered in A year, Mars in 2020, to The Surface from a rocket-powered "skycrane"

geology, mars, space exploration, nasa, mars rovers, biology, nasa mars rover, curiosity rover

Source of news: bbc.com