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Mars 2020

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NASA Curiosity Rover Selfie Mars
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover took a new selfie on Oct. 11, 2019 at “Glen Etive”, which is part of the “clay-bearing unit,” and this mosaic was stitched together from 57 individual images taken by a camera on the end of its robotic arm. If you look in the left foreground you’ll see the two holes that Curiosity drilled – named “Glen Etive 1” (right) and “Glen Etive 2” (left) – that were used to analyze the chemical composition of rock samples by using the drill to turn them into powder before dropping the samples into a portable lab in its belly called Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM).

NASA Mars 2020 Rover Boarding Pass
Photo credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Want your name sent to Mars? It’s the last call to do so. That’s right, NASA will send your name aboard the Mars 2020 if you manage to get it in by the end of today, Sept. 30. Once this campaign ends, all of the names will be sent as early as July 2020 and expected to touch down on Mars in February 2021. The rover weighs in at 2,300 pounds and will search for signs of past microbial life, characterize the planet’s climate as well as geology, collect samples for Earth, and pave the way for human colonization.