Mars Rover 2020: Here's What NASA's New Red-Planet Car Will Look Like

This NASA artist concept shows how the agency's Mars 2020 rover will look as it explores the Red Planet.
This artist's concept shows how NASA's Mars 2020 rover will look as it explores the Red Planet. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

NASA has unveiled some cool new concept art for its next Red Planet robot, the Mars 2020 rover, and it looks awesome.

If the Mars 2020 rover concept art, which NASA released yesterday (May 23), looks familiar, don't worry; you're not seeing things. The rover's basic design was influenced by NASA's nuclear-powered Curiosity rover, which has been exploring Mars since 2012. [NASA's Mars 2020 Rover in Pictures]

This artist's concept shows how NASA's Mars 2020 rover will look as it explores the Red Planet. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Both rovers are about the size of a Mini Cooper. But the 2020 rover will have a completely new mission, NASA officials said.

"The mission takes the next step by not only seeking signs of habitable conditions on Mars in the ancient past, but also searching for signs of past microbial life itself," NASA officials wrote in a statement. "The Mars 2020 rover introduces a drill that can collect core samples of the most promising rocks and soils, and set them aside on the surface of Mars. A future mission could potentially return these samples to Earth."

NASA had previously released art depictions of the Mars 2020 rover. But the new concept art is the first detailed look at how the rover might look on the surface of Mars. Past images showed the rover with its many science instruments labeled, or on a white background.

NASA scientists are currently evaluating three potential landing sites for the Mars 2020 rover. Those regions on Mars include Jezero crater, an ancient delta carved by a past lake basin; the Columbia Hills, the site of past mineral hot springs that was previously explored by NASA's Spirit rover; and Syrtis Major, an ancient shield volcano. 

The Mars 2020 rover is scheduled to launch in July or August of 2020 aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from a pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, NASA officials said.

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Tariq Malik
Editor-in-Chief

Tariq is the Editor-in-Chief of Space.com and joined the team in 2001, first as an intern and staff writer, and later as an editor. He covers human spaceflight, exploration and space science, as well as skywatching and entertainment. He became Space.com's Managing Editor in 2009 and Editor-in-Chief in 2019. Before joining Space.com, Tariq was a staff reporter for The Los Angeles Times covering education and city beats in La Habra, Fullerton and Huntington Beach. In October 2022, Tariq received the Harry Kolcum Award for excellence in space reporting from the National Space Club Florida Committee. He is also an Eagle Scout (yes, he has the Space Exploration merit badge) and went to Space Camp four times as a kid and a fifth time as an adult. He has journalism degrees from the University of Southern California and New York University. You can find Tariq at Space.com and as the co-host to the This Week In Space podcast with space historian Rod Pyle on the TWiT network. To see his latest project, you can follow Tariq on Twitter @tariqjmalik.