back to article New Mars rover is GO for 2020 says NASA

All being well, NASA will launch the successor to Curiosity Rover in 2020. And this time the agency hopes to prepare samples for an as-yet-blue-sky manned mission that could one day return them to Earth for analysis. NASA says its Mars Rover 2020 project has passed a “significant milestone” – Key Decision Point (KDP) C – which …

  1. Richard Boyce

    Wheels

    I suspect the wheels will have a new design. Curiosity's wheels have taken a beating.

  2. Neil Barnes Silver badge

    Obviously the first sounds will be...

    "Where is the earth-shattering KABOOM? I wanted an earth-shattering KABOOM!"

    1. A Non e-mouse Silver badge

      Re: Obviously the first sounds will be...

      Surely that's a Mars shattering kaboom...?

      1. wolfetone Silver badge

        Re: Obviously the first sounds will be...

        Wouldn't it be more like:

        "Those bloody Eathlings sending us their crap again."

      2. You aint sin me, roit
        Alien

        Re: Obviously the first sounds will be...

        A Barsoom boom!

      3. Uffish

        Re: Surely that's a Mars shattering kaboom...

        Only if there isn't an Earth shattering kaboom first.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Obviously the first sounds will be...

      Clearly it needs to be Rick Rolled...

  3. Pascal Monett Silver badge

    "that microphone won't be the first to go to Mars"

    Hang on there, we've been sending rovers with microphones to Mars before and nobody thought of sending back the sounds ?

    Why ? How can a microphone be of use to the rover without being used to send back audio data ?

    Is there some sort of audio map made of the immediate vicinity, for route planning, perhaps ?

    1. MrDamage Silver badge

      Re: "that microphone won't be the first to go to Mars"

      Audio was sent back, but it appears to have just been Slim Whitmans "Indian Love Song"

      Obviously the Martians thought that if they made our heads explode, we would leave them alone.

    2. DuncanL

      Re: "that microphone won't be the first to go to Mars"

      The microphones that have gone before didn't make it or were never turned on...

      http://www.astronomy.com/magazine/ask-astro/2016/06/sounds-from-mars

  4. PassiveSmoking

    Come on guys, there's 4 outer planets, dozens of moons and a cornucopia of kaiper belt objects, go and have a look at those for a while! I mean after the excitement New Horizons generated why isn't there a second Pluto/kaiper belt mission on the drawing board?

    1. James Hughes 1

      Cost. Cost. Cost.

      Lots of them on the drawing board, just not the money to send them.

    2. Greggles

      The simple answer is because it's way cheaper to do way more science way faster on mars than Pluto and beyond. New Horizons was a glorified drive by because to slow down enough to do an extended survey would have required an immense amount of fuel or to travel there so slowly that the original planners of the mission would be retired or dead by the time it arrived. Mars is close so we can send satellites for a communications infrastructure and a plethora of different probes and landers at "relatively" low cost increasing our knowledge of extra terrestrial science lowering the cost and increasing the effectiveness of future trips further out.

  5. Graham Marsden
    Alien

    O O This is the voice of the Mysterons...

    ... We know that you can hear us...

    Get your damned junk off our lawn!

  6. JCitizen
    Coat

    I predict..

    that the sounds of Mars will be like that classic Star Trek wind chime noise they hear on every planet! HA!

  7. Herby

    Then there are cockroaches...

    Have one (only one!) to see if it can survive on Mars. Now that would be an experiment. We all know that cockroaches will survive ANYTHING, and this is the place to find out.

    Hopefully the one you send isn't pregnant!!

    You never know what the scientists will come up with, sounds of a cockroach??

  8. Stuart Halliday
    Alien

    Sound what sound?

    Air pressure is so low on Mars, they'll be lucky to hear anything.

    Certainly won't need a windsock!

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