NASA officials said that they made new developments in picking a location the landing site of a Mars 2020 rover. The organization also said that human landing on the Red planet is possible by 2030.
From a prospect of 54 locations, the team is now eyeing eight high priority sites for landing. The site selection for the landing rover is deemed to be a key milestone for the 2020 mission.
The selection is narrowed down by looking for sites that could have once supported life. Meaning, sites that could have water in the past. The eight landing sites would be further narrowed down depending on the high-resolution imagery taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
The Mars 2020 rover mission is part of NASA's Mars Exploration Program which aims to have a robotic exploration of the Red Planet, Top Examiner reported. The program aims to seek signs of life habitability on Mars in the past and also signs of microbial life itself, Space reported.
NASA is also currently holding workshops for a possible human landing site on 2030 is the agency's schedule permits it. The space agency had always planned sending a crew of astronauts to Mars for decades but the plan has been mulled for decades.
"We're closer than we've ever been to humans stepping on Mars," NASA deputy administrator Dava Newman said in a conference.
The mission is divided into three phases: the earth-dependent phase, the proving ground phase and the earth-independent phase. According to the agency, NASA and Lockheed Martin have already built the spacecraft that will take humans to Mars.
The spacecraft is called Orion but it has to go through a few more tests before they come to a conclusion that it could safely transport astronauts to Mars. Its first mission is scheduled for 2023 where four brave men will test the spacecraft themselves.
Learn more about the program below:
