Mars 2020 affordable. "Curiosity" engineering team are also involved in the rover's design. Based on the scientific objectives, nearly 60 proposals for rover instrumentation were evaluated and, on 31 July 2014, NASA announced the payload for the rover. In May 2017, evidence of the earliest known life on land may have been found in 3.48-billion-year-old geyserite, a mineral deposit often found around hot springs and geysers, uncovered in the Pilbara Craton of Western Australia. These findings may be helpful in deciding where best to search for early signs of life on the planet Mars. The following locations are the eight landing sites
Opportunity (rover) ceased communications on June 10 and entered hibernation on June 12, 2018. It was hoped it would reboot once the atmosphere cleared, but it did not, suggesting either a catastrophic failure or that a layer of dust has covered its solar panels. NASA hopes to reestablish contact with the rover, citing a windy period that could potentially clean off the solar panels of the rover. The primary surface mission for "Opportunity" was planned to last 90 sols (92 Earth days). The mission has received several extensions and has been operating for days since landing. An archive of weekly updates on