Image copyright NASA/JPL/JHUAPL/MSSS/BROWN UNIVERSITY Image caption Jezero Crater shows strong evidence from orbit of past water activity

The American space agency (Nasa) says it will send its 2020 Mars rover to a location known as Jezero Crater.

Nasa believes the rocks in this nearly 50km-wide bowl could conceivably hold a record of ancient life on the planet.

Satellite images of Jezero point to river water having once cut through its rim and flowed via a delta system into a big lake.

It is the kind of environment that might just have supported microbes some 3.5-3.9 billion years ago.

This was a period when Mars was much warmer and wetter than it is today.

What is so special about Jezero?

Evidence for the past presence of a lake is obviously a draw, but Ken Farley, the Nasa project scientist on the mission, said the delta traces were also a major attraction.

"A delta is extremely good at preserving bio-signatures - any evidence of life that might have existed in the lake water, or at the interface of the sediment and the lake water, or possibly things that lived in the headwaters region that were swept in by the river and deposited in the delta," he told reporters.

Jezero's multiple rock types, including clays and carbonates, have high potential to preserve the organic molecules that would hint at life's bygone existence.

The 500m-deep crater was chosen after a four-year consultation process with Mars scientists. In a straw-poll taken at the end of the most recent site-selection workshop, it came out the clear favourite. Nasa's administration has now endorsed the choice.

Jezero is sited just north of Mars' equator. It is named after a town in Bosnia-Herzegovina. In some Slavic languages the word "jezero" also means "lake".

Image copyright NASA Image caption The Mars 2020 rover is based on the design of the Curiosity robot

How does 2020 link to future missions?

Another of the robot's key objectives will be to select and "cache" in small canisters some rock samples that could, at a later date, be collected and returned to Earth labs for analysis.

Nasa is working with the European Space Agency (Esa) on this initiative, but exactly when the sample tubes might come home is uncertain.

Planning with Esa was at an early stage, said Thomas Zurbuchen, Nasa's science chief. "Depending on how the details come out, it could be in the early 2030s," he explained.

Image copyright NASA Image caption Artwork: The 2020 mission will again use a "Skycrane" to put the rover on the surface

Is the 2020 rover a copy of Curiosity?

The 2020 rover is based on the one-tonne Curiosity robot that the agency landed in Gale Crater in 2012. Curiosity has been a great success, and Nasa wants to repeat it. Using the same "template" also saves money; some equipment spares were left over from 2012.

That said, instrument-wise, the new vehicle is quite a bit different. Yes, it will again feature cameras, a robotic arm, a drill and a laser - but there is a new suite of sensors and analysis tools, and there is even an experiment to demonstrate how future astronauts might make oxygen on the Red Planet.

The new robot will use the same "Skycrane" technology that put Curiosity down with such great precision six years ago - but with an add-on. Engineers have developed an on-the-fly mapping system called Terrain-Relative Navigation which ought to bring even greater accuracy to the landing process.

What else can we look forward to on Mars?

Missions to Mars can only launch inside a tight time window due to the alignment of the planets.

The 2020 venture will leave Earth in the July/August of that year and should land on 18 February 2021.

"Nasa has a long and successful track record at Mars. Since Mariner 4 flew by Mars in 1965, we've orbited, we've landed and we've roved across the surface of the Red Planet," said Lori Glaze, the acting director of Nasa's planetary science division. "And we've got another opportunity to improve our track record a week from today when we land InSight on the surface. We're all looking forward to that."

Unlike 2020 and Curiosity, Insight is a static lander. It will be the first mission dedicated to "looking inside" the planet. It will use seismometers to listen for "Marsquakes", to help build a picture of Mars' internal structure.

Esa is sending a rover to Mars in 2020 also. European scientists recently selected Oxia Planum as its destination. Satellite imagery suggests, as with Jezero and Gale, this ancient terrain came into prolonged contact with water.

Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk and follow me on Twitter: @BBCAmos</s>After years of analysis and debate, NASA announced Monday that the agency's next Mars rover will land near an ancient river delta where water once flowed into a 30-mile-wide, 1,600-foot-deep crater. Its mission will be to search for signs of ancient microbial life and to continue ongoing studies of the red planet's history and evolution.

Laying the groundwork for future robotic missions and eventual human flights, the Mars 2020 rover also will test technology designed to extract oxygen from the martian atmosphere and to cache rock and soil samples in the Jezero Crater landing site for possible return to Earth aboard a future spacecraft.

The launch window for the new rover opens on July 17, 2020, setting up a landing on Feb. 18, 2021.

"The landing site at Jezero Crater offers geologically rich terrain with landforms reaching as far back as 3.6 billion years and could potentially answer important questions in planetary evolution and astrobiology," Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of NASA's science mission directorate, told reporters.

"Getting samples from this unique area will revolutionize how we think about Mars and its ability to harbor life," he added. "This decision today could determine what happens in the next decade or more of Mars exploration, both robotic and human. The technologies that we prove here feed forward into a program that gets ever more exciting."

The landing site announcement came one week before NASA's non-roving InSight lander, launched last May, touches down on Mars next Monday to study the planet's interior structure by placing an ultra-sensitive seismometer on the surface and hammering temperature sensors into the crust.

Modeled after NASA's hugely successful Curiosity rover, which landed in Gale Crater in August 2012, the Mars 2020 rover will weigh roughly the same, about one ton, feature the same nuclear power pack and use the same dramatic "sky crane" entry, descent and landing system in which a rocket-powered carrier lowers the rover to the surface on a tether.

The 2020 rover originally was projected to cost around $1.9 billion, some $600 million less than Curiosity. It now is expected to cost roughly the same.

But the new rover features different instruments and a major upgrade known as terrain relative navigation. As it descends toward the martian surface, the system will assess the surface below and actively guide the spacecraft to avoid hazardous cliffs, boulders or "sand traps" that could prove difficult to drive through.

The Jezero Crater landing site features all three.

"This selection is dependent upon additional and extensive analysis of ... terrain relative navigation, or TRN," Zurbuchen said. "It is the first time we use this system integrated with the entry, descent and landing process. We're really excited about it. TRN will enable the sky crane descent stage, the rocket powered system that carries the rover down to the surface, to avoid hazardous areas."

An independent review board will assess the landing system and report to NASA in the fall of 2019, "not because we have any doubt about using TRN," Zurbuchen said, "but to be absolutely sure we're ready to go with this exciting technology."

Planetary scientists began debating possible landing sites for the Mars 2020 rover five years ago, whittling down a list of more than 60 candidate sites to just four. After a final round of discussions last month, Zurbuchen selected Jezero, a 30-mile-wide, 1,600-foot-deep crater at 18 degrees north latitude.

Based on imagery and other data collected by Mars orbiters, scientists believe the crater was filled with an 820-foot-deep lake between 3.5 billion and 3.9 billion years ago. The lake was fed by a river that flowed into and then out of the crater, leaving a distinct delta fanning out across the terrain.

"Lakes on Earth are both very habitable and inevitably inhabited, so that's the first attraction," said Ken Farley, Mars 2020 project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "The second attraction is a delta is extremely good at preserving biosignatures, any evidence of life that might have existed in the lake water or at the interface between the sediment and the lake water."

The delta also could preserve evidence of microbial life that originated outside the crater and was carried in by the river that fed the lake.

"So the delta is a good place for evidence of life to be deposited and then preserved for the billions of years that have elapsed since this lake was present," Farley said.

But he cautioned the spacecraft will not look for signs of present life "because currently, the surface of Mars is too cold, it's too dry and it has too much radiation for life as we know it to survive."

"But it wasn't always that way," he said. "For reasons that are not yet known, prior to about three-and-a-half billion years ago, Mars' climate was very different, there was clearly flowing water on the surface of the planet. As we currently understand life, it requires liquid water. And so all things point to the idea we should be looking at ancient Mars for a surface habitable environment."</s>NASA has chosen the landing site for its next rover mission to Mars: a treacherously rugged 3.6 billion-year-old crater.

The 28-mile- (45-kilometer) wide Jezero Crater was selected as the destination for the mission, which is scheduled to launch in 2020, because of its potential for scientific research.

“The landing site in Jezero Crater offers geologically rich terrain, with landforms reaching as far back as 3.6 billion years old, that could potentially answer important questions in planetary evolution and astrobiology,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate.

“Getting samples from this unique area will revolutionize how we think about Mars and its ability to harbor life,” he added.

The crater was chosen after a five-year search that examined some 60 other sites on Mars.

Jezero’s ancient lake-delta system offers promising sampling targets of at least five kinds of rock, including clays and carbonates that have high potential to preserve signatures of past life, NASA said in a press statement posted online.

The material carried into the delta from a large watershed may also contain a wide variety of minerals from inside and outside the crater, it added.

Organic matter has already been found on the planet in soil samples taken from 3 billion-year-old mudstone and methane has been detected in the Martian atmosphere.

Landing on Mars is incredibly difficult. Only 40% of missions sent to the Red Planet by any agency have been successful.

Part of this is due to the thin Martian atmosphere, which is only 1% of Earth’s, so there’s nothing to slow down something trying to land on the surface.

The United States is the only country to have missions that survived landing on Mars. NASA has been flying past, orbiting, landing and roving over Mars since 1965.

‘Once out of reach, now conceivable’

The geologic diversity that makes Jezero Crater interesting to scientists also makes it a challenge for the rover’s entry, descent and landing.

NASA said as well as its river delta and small crater impacts, the site contains numerous boulders and rocks to the east, cliffs to the west and depressions filled with aeolian bedforms (wind-derived ripples in sand that could trap a rover) in several locations.

“The Mars community has long coveted the scientific value of sites such as Jezero Crater, and a previous mission contemplated going there, but the challenges with safely landing were considered prohibitive,” said Ken Farley, project scientist for Mars 2020 at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

“But what was once out of reach is now conceivable, thanks to the 2020 engineering team and advances in Mars entry, descent and landing technologies.”

When the landing site search began, mission engineers already had refined the landing system such that they were able to reduce the Mars 2020 landing zone to an area 50 percent smaller than that for the landing of NASA’s Curiosity rover at Gale Crater in 2012.

NASA has added a new capability called Terrain Relative Navigation, which will enable the “sky crane” descent stage, the rocket-powered system that carries the rover down to the surface, to avoid hazardous areas.

“Nothing has been more difficult in robotic planetary exploration than landing on Mars,” said Zurbuchen.

“The Mars 2020 engineering team has done a tremendous amount of work to prepare us for this decision. The team will continue its work to truly understand the TRN system and the risks involved, and we will review the findings independently to reassure we have maximized our chances for success.”

On November 26, NASA’s Mars InSight lander will touch down on the Red Planet at 3 p.m. EST, the first time in six years a new mission will land on Mars.</s>The Mars 2020 rover is going to an ancient river delta known as Jezero Crater.

Five years after the Mars 2020 project was first announced, we finally have a landing spot for the next Mars rover. Following a long process of scrutiny and selection, NASA has chosen Jezero Crater as the touchdown area for the Mars 2020 rover.

Unveiled yesterday as the final destination of the next robotic mission to Mars, Jezero Crater was picked out of more than 60 candidate locations — all with great scientific potential for the Mars 2020 mission. Once an ancient river delta, the 28-mile-wide crater is rife with geologic diversity and is currently seen as the best hope of finding signs of past life on the red planet.

As the Inquisitr previously reported, Jezero Crater was already viewed as a prime location for biosignatures of past microbial life on Mars. The area boasts at least five different types of rock that could be sampled by the Mars 2020 rover — which will hopefully provide unparalleled insight into the habitability of the red planet.

“The landing site in Jezero Crater offers geologically rich terrain, with landforms reaching as far back as 3.6 billion years old, that could potentially answer important questions in planetary evolution and astrobiology,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. “Getting samples from this unique area will revolutionize how we think about Mars and its ability to harbor life.”

One of the main reasons why the Mars 2020 rover is going to Jezero Crater are the ancient sedimentary rocks deposited on the now dried-up lakebed. Exquisitely preserved thanks to Mars’ lack of plate tectonics, the ancient river delta is filled with clays and carbonates — known for their “high potential” to retain traces of microbial life.

As NASA points out, the lake-delta system at Jezero Crater “could have collected and preserved ancient organic molecules and other potential signs of microbial life from the water and sediments that flowed into the crater billions of years ago.” The rover will collect several soil and rock samples and store them in a cache on the Martian surface for later pick-up by a future Mars mission.

Another plus for the Mars 2020 mission is that Jezero Crater is located in one of the “oldest and most scientifically interesting landscapes Mars has to offer” — Isidis Planitia, a massive plain just north of the Martian equator.

This giant impact basin was originally targeted as a landing spot for the European Beagle 2 mission, sent out to drill the area and search for signs of alien life back in 2003. However, the tiny British probe never made it to Isidis Planitia and was lost somewhere on the Martian surface, as the Inquisitr reported a few years ago.

While landing on Isidis Planitia is definitely a hard job to pull off, the Mars 2020 rover is poised to have a more auspicious fate. The car-sized robot will descend on the western edge of the plain — where Jezero Crater is located — and will rely on a novel feature called Terrain Relative Navigation (TRN) to guide itself to safe ground, NASA explained.

Similar to the Curiosity rover, which served as an inspiration for the design of the new NASA robot, the Mars 2020 rover will use a rocket-powered sky crane to lower itself on the Martian terrain. The spacecraft is in for a challenging landing and will be facing numerous potentially hazardous landforms, including cliffs, boulders, and depressions filled with aeolian bedforms —wind-derived ripples in the sand that could trap a rover.

The TRN feature is meant to give the robot an extra advantage and will provide it with a map of the landing site, known hazards included, allowing the rover to change its direction and divert itself from risky terrain.

“Nothing has been more difficult in robotic planetary exploration than landing on Mars,” said Zurbuchen. “The Mars 2020 engineering team has done a tremendous amount of work to prepare us for this decision. The team will continue their work to truly understand the TRN system and the risks involved, and we will review the findings independently to reassure we have maximized our chances for success.”

Due to launch in July 2020, the Mars 2020 rover will touch down in Jezero Crater in February 2021. The robot is equipped with seven scientific instruments and will trek the inside of Jezero Crater for at least one Mars year, or about 687 Earth days.</s>NASA has chosen Jezero Crater delta, where the sediments contain clays and carbonates, as the landing site for its upcoming Mars 2020 Rover mission, the US space agency said.

Jezero Crater, 45 kilometres in size, is located on the western edge of Isidis Planitia — a giant impact basin just north of the Martian equator.

Its ancient lake-delta system offers many promising sampling targets of at least five different kinds of rock, including clays and carbonates that have high potential to preserve signatures of past life.

“The landing site in Jezero Crater offers geologically rich terrain, with land forms reaching as far back as 3.6 billion years, that could potentially answer important questions in planetary evolution and astrobiology,” Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, said in a statement on Monday.

“Getting samples from this unique area will revolutionize how we think about Mars and its ability to harbour life,” he added.

The crater, once home to an ancient river delta, could have collected and preserved ancient organic molecules and other potential signs of microbial life from the water and sediments that flowed into the crater billions of years ago.

In addition, the site contains numerous boulders and rocks to the east, cliffs to the west, and depressions filled with aeolian bedforms (wind-derived ripples in sand that could trap a rover) in several locations.

Selecting a landing site this early allows the Rover drivers and science operations team to optimise their plans for exploring Jezero Crater once the Rover is safely on the ground.

The Rover mission is scheduled to launch in July 2020 as NASA’s next step in exploration of the Red Planet.

It will not only seek signs of ancient habitable conditions and past microbial life but will also collect rock and soil samples and store them in a cache on the planet’s surface.

Earlier in November, ExoMars rover — the European Space Agency (ESA) and Russian Roscosmos’ joint venture to the Red Planet that will set out in 2020 — also chose a landing site on Mars’ equator called Oxia Planum, which had in the prehistoric era housed a massive pool of water.</s>NASA is aiming its next Mars rover at an ancient river delta, a location where evidence of past life could still be preserved — if life ever did arise on Mars.

The rover, scheduled to launch in July 2020, will largely be a clone of NASA’s Curiosity rover, which is currently exploring Mars. But it will carry a new set of instruments geared to searching for the carbon building blocks of life and other signs of past microbes. After it blasts off, it will arrive on the red planet in February 2021.

Jezero, a 28-mile-wide crater just north of Mars’s Equator, was chosen from four finalist site s. Analysis of images, taken from satellites orbiting Mars, suggests that the crater was once filled with a lake that was 800 feet deep. There are also signs of rivers that flowed into and out of the lake.

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More than 3.5 billion years ago, scientists believe, Mars’s climate was warmer and wetter and possibly suited for life. After considering 64 proposed landing sites in all, scientists recommended Jezero as the most promising place to explore.</s>NASA knows where it's going on Mars in 2020. Out of 60 possible candidates, the space agency has chosen what's known as the Jezero Crater as its landing site for the Mars 2020 mission.

The choice of landing site fundamentally defines the mission. Of chief concern to NASA is the relationship the Red Planet has with life.

“The landing site in Jezero Crater offers geologically rich terrain, with landforms reaching as far back as 3.6 billion years old, that could potentially answer important questions in planetary evolution and astrobiology,” says Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, in a press statement. “Getting samples from this unique area will revolutionize how we think about Mars and its ability to harbor life.”

Jezereo first piqued scientific interest in 2005, when two channels of an ancient lake were identified in the region by then-grad student Caleb Fasset of Brown, now a planetary scientist at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. "Water flowing in the valley networks entered the crater," Fasset and co-author James Head wrote at the time, created a pond with a "maximum depth of about 450 m"— around 1,476 feet, a 100 feet deeper than Lake Superior.

A later study in 2015 showed that Jerezeo presented "a strong case for at least two periods of water-related activity in Mars' history," said Tim Goudge, also a grad student at Brown and currently of the University of Texas.

Just north of the Martian equator, Jezereo lies on the western edge of Isidis Planitia, a huge impact basin 28 miles wide that offers a promising location for any rover. That system could, NASA theorizes, offer up as many as five different types of rock. Those rocks could provide strong insight into the planet's history.

There's also a geologic diversity to the Jezereo that is appealing. It's got river deltas, small crater impacts, nearby cliffs, and boulders and rocks to spare.

“The Mars community has long coveted the scientific value of sites such as Jezero Crater, and a previous mission contemplated going there, but the challenges with safely landing were considered prohibitive,” says Ken Farley, a project scientist for Mars 2020 at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in the press statement. “But what was once out of reach is now conceivable, thanks to the 2020 engineering team and advances in Mars entry, descent and landing technologies.”

The biggest change in landing technology since the last time NASA landed on Mars in 2012 has been Terrain Relative Navigation (TRN). Before rover ever lands, it takes pictures of the landing surface. Then, as it lands, the TRN allows the lander to compare the real-time landing site with its images. Comparing landmarks allows the rover to divert itself if it drifts off course.

“Nothing has been more difficult in robotic planetary exploration than landing on Mars,” says Zurbuchen. “The Mars 2020 engineering team has done a tremendous amount of work to prepare us for this decision. The team will continue their work to truly understand the TRN system and the risks involved, and we will review the findings independently to reassure we have maximized our chances for success.”

There's a lot riding on Mars 2020. NASA hopes that the rover will lay the groundwork for humans to explore next. If findings are fruitful, the Jezero Crater might just find itself as a regular landing site in years ahead.</s>US space agency NASA has found a suitable landing site for its Mars 2020 rover mission, which is scheduled to launch in July 2020.

"NASA has chosen Jezero Crater as the landing site for its upcoming Mars 2020 rover mission after a five year search," the space agency said late Monday.

The 45-kilometre-wide crater has a "geologically rich terrain" that is perfect for analysing the planet's surface as well as investigating "signs of ancient habitable conditions," the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said.

Scientists suspect the Mars 2020 rover may be able to detect signs of microbial life, as the landforms within the crater are estimated to be around 3.6 billion years old and were likely once part of a lake-delta system.

Mars 2020 will launch from Cape Canaveral in Florida. It is a revised version of the rover Curiosity, which arrived on the Red Planet in 2012.

Before the launch of Mars 2020, another robot is scheduled to land on Mars on Monday: The robot InSight will then begin its two-year mission as a stationary probe.</s>After a five-year search NASA has chosen the Jezero Crater as the landing site for its Mars 2020 rover mission.

The crater was selected from more than 60 candidate locations which were studied, analysed and debated by the mission team and planetary science community.

The US space agency's mission to place a next-generation rover on the Martian surface is scheduled to launch in July 2020.

It will examine the planet for signs covering whether it was ever habitable and analyse the surface and beneath for ancient microbial life.

"The landing site in Jezero Crater offers geologically rich terrain, with landforms reaching as far back as 3.6 billion years old, that could potentially answer important questions in planetary evolution and astrobiology," said NASA's Thomas Zurbuchen.

"Getting samples from this unique area will revolutionise how we think about Mars and its ability to harbour life," added Mr Zurbuchen, associate administrator for the agency's science mission directorate.

The Jezero Crater is located on the western edge of a giant impact basin just north of the Martian equator.

Known as Isidis Planitia, the impact basin presents some of the oldest and most scientifically interesting landscapes Mars has to offer, according to NASA.

"Mission scientists believe the 28-mile-wide (45km) crater was once home to an ancient river delta and is a prime location to have preserved ancient organic molecules and evidence of microbial life.

"The Mars community has long coveted the scientific value of sites such as Jezero Crater, and a previous mission contemplated going there, but the challenges with safely landing were considered prohibitive," said Ken Farley.

"But what was once out of reach is now conceivable, thanks to the 2020 engineering team and advances in Mars entry, descent and landing technologies," added Mr Farley, a project scientist for Mars 2020 at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Jezero Crater's selection is still "dependent upon extensive analyses and verification testing" according to NASA, and a final report will be given to NASA HQ towards the end of 2019.</s>
• NASA has picked a landing site for its upcoming Mars 2020 rover.
• The space agency will try to land its nuclear-powered robot in Jezero Crater, a giant impact near the Martian equator.
• Jezero Crater was a water-rich area billions of years ago on Mars, and it might still hide signs of alien life such as microbes.
• NASA hopes to dig up and store Martian soil samples – for the first time in human history – for a future launch back to Earth.

NASA has announced where it plans to land the Mars 2020 rover and dig for signs of alien life in the red planet’s soil.

The car-size robot is expected to land inside the 28-mile-diameter Jezero Crater, an ancient impact site located just north of the Martian equator. It was one of more than 60 sites that NASA eyed during years of consideration.

“This area, with a history of containing water, may have ancient organic molecules and other potential signs of microbial life from billions of years ago,” Jim Bridenstine, the administrator of NASA, said in a tweet.

NASA’s Mars 2020 rover is made from a backup of the Curiosity rover, which landed on Mars in August 2012 and has roamed the red planet on nuclear power ever since. But the new six-wheeled robot will come with vital upgrades to its wheels and – most importantly – be equipped to “collect rock and soil samples and store them in a cache on the planet’s surface,” the agency said in a press release.

This canister of soil and rocks, if successfully stashed, will be the critical first leg of an unprecedented, multi-mission effort to collect and launch the first sample of Mars back to Earth, where scientists would be able to analyze it in detail.

“The landing site in Jezero Crater offers geologically rich terrain, with landforms reaching as far back as 3.6 billion years old, that could potentially answer important questions in planetary evolution and astrobiology,” Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA’s associate administrator, said in the release. “Getting samples from this unique area will revolutionize how we think about Mars and its ability to harbor life.”

When and where the Mars 2020 rover will look for signs of life

Jezero Crater, which is about two-thirds the size of the US state of Rhode Island, was officially named in 2007 after a town in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The name means “lake” in several Slavic languages, and it is no coincidence; the impact site was once rich with liquid water.

NASA expects to launch the Mars 2020 rover in July or August of 2020, which means the robot would arrive at its destination in April or May of 2021.

Like Curiosity, NASA plans to use a death-defying “sky crane” system to plunk the 2,315-lb robot on the Martian surface. However, the sky crane for Mars 2020 will come with a massive artificial-intelligence-powered upgrade, called “terrain relative navigation,” which could help the robot avoid hitting any hazards as it lands.

The Mars 2020 rover’s landing site is located in the northwest region of Jezero Crater, where a river appears to have eroded through the wall of the basin.

“Jezero Crater’s ancient lake-delta system offers many promising sampling targets of at least five different kinds of rock, including clays and carbonates that have high potential to preserve signatures of past life,” NASA said.

Details about how NASA plans to collect a sample of Jezero, launch it back to Earth, and safely analyze the Martian soil and rocks have yet to be announced.

This story has been updated.
NASA selects Jezero crater on Mars as the landing site for the Mars 2020 rover. The crater was once a large lake and may hold evidence of ancient life.