New Delhi:
Mars 2020 is scheduled to launch towards the red planet in July next year. The rover is expected to land in an expansive impact crater called Jezero, where liquid water once flowed, about seven months after departing Earth. Mars 2020 will use a suite of high-tech tools to scout for signs of ancient alien microbes. The robot will have a laser blaster to analyse interesting rocks from afar. NASA’S big mission to Mars is coming together inside a sterile room in California. The rover weighs 2,314-pound (1,050-kilogram). The assembling is in the process and if you wish to watch it, then of course you can. You can watch assembling of Mars 2020 - bolt by bolt, wheel by wheel, and scientific instrument by scientific instrument, thanks to a camera installed in that room.
To show progress on its roughly $2.1 billion investment, NASA installed a webcam with ‘'a live, bird's-eye view" of the rover "as it takes shape at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California," Business Insider quoted an email sent by the US space agency.
"You can watch engineers and technicians assemble and test the rover before it embarks next year on one of the most technologically challenging interplanetary missions ever designed," NASA added.
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"A future mission could potentially return these samples to Earth," NASA says on its website about the rover. "That would help scientists study the samples in laboratories with special room-sized equipment that would be too large to take to Mars," it added.
The video of the rover's construction has be running nearly 24 hours a day since mid-June. NASA hosts live web chats about the build Monday through Thursday at 2 pm and 7 pm ET.
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It is worth mentioning here that the footage has shown workers attach the rover's wheels, robotic arm, and head-like mast to its chassis.
Recently, engineers have installed "SuperCam" on the mast — the laser-equipped device can blast interesting targets and analyze their chemistry from about 20 feet away.
