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The “Seeing
2020” live video feed allows the public to watch engineers and technicians assemble and test NASA’s next Mars rover in a clean room at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech |
Kremer — SpaceUpClose.com &
RocketSTEM – 10 June 2019
CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – Thanks to a newly installed webcam, you can watch as NASA builds its next rover launching to the Red Planet –
the Mars 2020 rover – via a live,
bird’s-eye view newly offered to the public direct from clean room assembly
facility at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
“You can watch as JPL engineers and technicians
assemble and test the rover before it embarks next year on one of the most
technologically challenging interplanetary missions ever designed,” says NASA.
The webcam is named “Seeing 2020”
and shows the construction of the Mars 2020 rover from a vantage point above
the clean room – minus any audio.
Continuous live video of rover construction is
available at:
moderated chats at:
the clean room, I come here every opportunity I get,” said Mars 2020
project manager John McNamee of JPL, in a statement.
“It is great that we can share this part of
our journey to the Red Planet with the public anytime they want.”
Mars 2020 rover is being built in the High Bay 1
where the work day starts at 8 a.m. PDT (11 a.m. EDT) Mon.-Fri and will
continue for many months before it is shipped to the Kennedy Space Center for
final assembly and testing.
The other main components comprising the back
shell, descent stage and cruise stage have already been assembled and tested.
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Members of the public
who want to send their name to Mars on NASA’s next rover mission to the Red Planet (Mars 2020) can get a souvenir boarding pass and their names etched on microchips to be affixed to the rover. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech |
public to send their name along for the journey that begins with blastoff of
the ‘2020 Rover’ in July 2020
From now until Sept. 30, you can send your name to
Mars by adding it to a chip to be loaded on board for the journey.
You can sign up and obtain a souvenir boarding
pass to Mars here:
up to place their names on the chips as of today, June 10.
I was fortunate to visit with Curiosity in
the KSC clean room back in 2011, 3 weeks before liftoff. A memory I’ll always cherish !
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Dr. Ken Kremer/Space UpClose in the KSC clean
room with Curiosity in 2011. Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com/spaceupclose.com |
The 1 ton rover (2,300 pounds, 1,000 kilograms)
is nearly a copy of the NASA’s Curiosity Mars Science Lab rover still operating
on Mars – but with a completely new suite of science instruments and cameras.
It
is being targeted to touch down at Jezero Crater in 2021.
Mars 2020 will search for signs of past
microbial life, characterize the planet’s climate and geology, collect samples
for future return to Earth, and pave the way for human exploration of the Red
Planet.
Watch for Ken’s continuing
onsite coverage of NASA, SpaceX, ULA, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman
and more space and mission reports direct from the Kennedy Space Center, Cape
Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida and Wallops Flight Facility, Virginia.
Stay tuned here for Ken’s continuing Earth and
Planetary science and human spaceflight news: www.kenkremer.com –www.spaceupclose.com – twitter @ken_kremer
– email: ken at kenkremer.com
Dr. Kremer is a research scientist and journalist based in the
KSC area, active in outreach and interviewed regularly on TV and radio about
space topics.
Ken’s photos are for sale and he is available for lectures and outreach events
