NASA's 2020 rover will land in an ancient, dried-up lakebed to hunt for past life on Mars

NASA's next car-sized rover will plummet through the thin Martian atmosphere and softly land on the floor of a dried-up lakebed, the space agency announced Monday.

When the robot arrives on Mars about 8 months after its launch in 2020, NASA will endeavor to land the six-wheeled rover in the Jezero Crater, a 30 mile-wide bowl about 1,640 feet deep. It's believed to have once held an 800-foot deep lake some 3.5 billion years ago. 

The space agency hopes to accomplish a number of things during the at least two-year mission. But the first science directive is to "determine whether life ever arose on Mars." Indeed, today Mars is extremely unlikely to harbor any life — on the surface, at least. It's a heavily irradiated, dry, frigid desert, with no liquid water. Read more...

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