SAN FRANCISCO — NASA will launch a new Mars rover in 2020, agency officials announced Dec. 4.

The unmanned rover's chassis and landing system will be based heavily on NASA's $2.5 billion Curiosity rover, which has been tooling around the Red Planet since August of this year, said John Grunsfeld, NASA's associate administrator for science.

"We have a whole new Mars mission, and I'm very excited about that," Grunsfeld said Tuesday at the annual fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union.

The similarity to Curiosity's basic design should allow the agency to save significant amounts of money on the 2020 rover mission, bringing its estimated cost down to about $1.5 billion, give or take $200 million or so, Grunsfeld said. [The Boldest Mars Missions in History]

Some basic guidelines for the mission are already in place. The 2020 rover should help NASA prepare for its eventual goal of bringing samples from Mars back to Earth — an effort most scientists regard as the best way to look for signs of life on the Red Planet.

"I think, no question, we want to advance sample handling, coring, analysis of samples to determine caching [of samples]," Grunsfeld said.

The new rover should also land at a site selected for its ability to preserve potential signs of life, according to Grunsfeld's presentation.

The precise details of the new mission, however, remain up in the air. They will be determined over the coming months by a "science definition team," with a call for instrument proposals from the scientific community expected by mid-summer next year.

"While 2020 may seem a long way off, it's really not," Grunsfeld said. "Curiosity was about a decade in the works."

The White House's proposed 2013 federal budget cut funding for NASA's Mars program considerably, spurring the agency to scale back and replan its Red Planet activities. The 2020 rover emerged after this fundamental rethink, and NASA should be able to mount the mission under its current budget scenario, Grunsfeld said.

"The Obama administration is committed to a robust Mars exploration program," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said in a statement. "With this next mission, we're ensuring America remains the world leader in the exploration of the Red Planet, while taking another significant step toward sending humans there in the 2030s." 

Aiming the rover for a 2020 launch, Grunsfeld said, allows NASA to keep contributing to two European-led Mars missions slated to lift off in 2016 and 2018, respectively — the Trace Gas Orbiter and the ExoMars rover.

Curiosity landed on Mars Aug. 5, dropped onto the surface by a rocket-powered sky crane. It's now four months into a two-year prime mission to determine if the Red Planet can, or ever could, support microbial life. The 1-ton rover carries 10 different science instruments to aid this quest.

And one of the agency's previous rovers, Opportunity, is still going strong after almost nine years on the Red Planet.

• A 'Curiosity' Quiz: How Well Do You Know NASA's Next Mars Rover?
• Mars Explored: Landers and Rovers Since 1971 (Infographic)
• Amazing Mars Rover Curiosity's Martian Views (Latest Photos)

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4 Comments

1. 1. billsincl 02:40 PM 12/5/12

   I am wondering about the wisdom of bringing samples back
   to Earth. If there is microbial life, would would they prevent a contamination disaster?
   
   I guess they would have to examine it very carefully first before landing, but curious as to how that would be accomplished. Maybe examine it before loading it into the return vehicle?

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2. 2. billsincl 02:42 PM 12/5/12

   How would they prevent a contamination disaster?
   

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3. 3. Joshua B in reply to billsincl 05:05 PM 12/5/12

   Billsincl,
   
   I could be wrong but I don't believe they are expecting any live bacteria or something of that nature. I believe the common consensus is that this would all be fossilized signs of life that we are looking for. While it is entirely possible that it could be some sort of life in a living state I believe they will have multiple screening processes and many fail safes in place. Are your fears of a disaster as such as that well placed? Absolutely, but we've looked at many other things that could have been an issue like that and it never was. I'm not saying it's impossible because people aren't perfect. I remember hearing these types of arguments for the drilling that took place in the arctic a few years ago to a system that was separated from the atmosphere for many many years.
   
   -Josh

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4. 4. jtackman in reply to Joshua B 10:03 AM 12/6/12

   I believe that's exactly what Billsincl is referring to, what if there is microbial life in the samples, expected or not.

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