The protective cap for the Mars 2020 mission successfully passed critical tests

NASA plans to send a Mars 2020 mission in the summer of next year. It is assumed that it will consist of two

the rover, the landing site of which will be the Syrt plateau and Jezero crater, located 28 km from each other.

Research vehicles will need to take samples of the soil in the vicinity of the landing sites to determine whether there are conditions for the life of microbes on Mars.

When February 18, 2021, the spacecraftMars 2020 will reach the Red Planet, it will face the most dangerous phase of the mission - with the atmosphere of Mars at interplanetary speeds. Sealed inside its protective aerodynamic shell, the probe will move at a speed of 19,300 km / h, accumulating air in front of itself in a shock wave that will slow it down to supersonic speeds.

The protective screen of the apparatus will prevent the destruction of the apparatus in the process of entering the atmosphere of the Red Planet. The screen itself will burn layer by layer, while removing heat from the capsule with the rovers.

Earlier it was reported that the software and the rover of another mission, ExoMars 2020, passed successful tests in conditions close to Martian, recreated by scientists in the laboratory.