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A Tale of Two Rovers: How does Mars 2020 compare to Curiosity?

A side-by-side view of the Mars 2020 and Curiosity rovers. Credit: NASA/JPL-Cal-Tech

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NASA’s next Mars rover is almost ready to launch. Engineers recently took it for a test spin, before shipping it off to its Cape Canaveral launch site. The six-wheeled rover will blast off this July; once it arrives on Mars, it will scour the red planet for signs of ancient life. 

The Mars 2020 rover, which should receive a name very soon, is nearly identical in appearance to its predecessor, the Curiosity rover. After landing on Mars in 2012, Curiosity has spent its time exploring Gale Crater, a 96-mile-wide crater. 

It was once the site of an ancient lake and stream system; scientists believe that it may have been able to support life. However, like the rest of the planet’s surface, the area is dry today. 

Artist rendition depicting the early Martian environment (right) versus the Mars we see today (left). Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

The twin rovers, Spirit and Opportunity landed on Mars in 2004 with one major goal: to follow the water. Right out of the gate, the duo proved that water once flowed on the surface of Mars. But what happened to it?

To answer that question, NASA launched the supersized Curiosity rover to learn more. Since landing in 2012, Curiosity discovered that Gale Crater was once home to an ancient lake billions of years ago and that it could have supported microbial life. The rover is still scouring the crater, hunting for clues as it climbs Mount Sharp, a 3-mile-tall (5-kilometer-tall) peak within the crater — that scientists believe was partially formed by water.

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3,760 miles (6,050 kilometers) away, Mars 2020 will explore Jezero Crater, the site of an ancient delta. Here the rover will take the next scientific step: It will look for actual signs of past life, called biosignatures, by analyzing samples of rocks and soil. It will also bag up samples that could be retrieved by future missions and eventually returned to Earth for more in-depth analysis.

NASA’s Mars2020 rover will explore Jezero Crater in search of life. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Mars 2020 is essentially a souped-up version of the Curiosity rover, but charged with searching for signs of life and collecting samples for eventual return to Earth. The new rover is estimated to cost $1.9 billion dollars and will carry a suite of 7 specialized instruments that will science the hell out of Mars. 

But first the rover has to land on Mars. To do so, it must survive a harrowing process known as entry, descent, and landing (aka seven minutes of terror). 

To the untrained eye, Mars 2020 looks like an identical copy of Curiosity, but if you look closely, you can tell that the two apart. Building a rover from scratch is extremely difficult and expensive. The folks at NASA built on the success of Curiosity and added new capabilities. A process that enabled more science at a reduced cost. 

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The beefier Mars 2020 rover is about 280 lbs. (127 kilograms) heavier than its counterpart. That’s because it carries different tools, like a larger drill. This enables the new rover to drill into rocks, extracting rock cores rather than just smashing them. 

We all love the epic robot selfies and stunning views of Martian landscapes so of course the new rover will be packing multiple cameras. Curiosity is equipped with 17 cameras; by comparison, Mars 2020 will have 23 that will shoot mostly in color. Additionally, Mars 2020’s Mastcam-Z will film in high definition and be able to zoom. 

The Mars Curiosity rover takes a selfie. Credit: NASA/JPL-Cal-Tech

Mars 2020 will also carry not one but two microphones on its journey so all of us back here on Earth can hear what Mars sounds like. The microphones will record the rover’s landing on Mars, as well as the Martian wind and will listen as the rover zaps scientific targets with its on board laser. 

Another design improvement will be the wheels. Curiosity was equipped with aluminum wheels, which have been badly beaten up by the rugged Martian terrain. Sharp rocks have proved to be troublesome, with NASA modifying the rover’s driving plan to ensure Curiosity makes it through its mission. To avoid these kinds of issues, engineers made Mars 2020’s wheels more robust

“Extensive testing in JPL’s Mars Yard has shown these treads better withstand the pressure from sharp rocks but work just as well on sand,” NASA officials said in a news release.

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Engineers have outfitted the Mars 2020 rover with more durable wheels. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA plans to return to the moon and eventually send humans to Mars. To that end, the Mars 2020 rover will help pave the way for future missions. The rover will carry spacesuit samples to determine how they degrade over time, as well as a subsurface radar instrument that could potentially be used to find buried water ice. 

Additionally, an oxygen generator will test technology that future astronauts could use to make their own rocket fuel from the Martian atmosphere.

I write about space, science, and future tech.

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Elon Musk

SpaceX’s IPO might arrive sooner than you think

Musk has hinted for years that an eventual public offering was inevitable, though he has stressed the need to maintain operational focus. Insiders have told outlets that the CEO is pushing for a significant retail investor allocation, reportedly more than 20 percent of shares, and tighter lock-up periods to limit early selling pressure.

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Credit: SpaceX | X

Elon Musk’s SpaceX is on the verge of one of the most anticipated Initial Public Offerings (IPO) in history.

However, a new report from The Information indicates the rocket and satellite giant is aiming to file its IPO prospectus with U.S. regulators as soon as this week, or early next week at the latest.

People familiar with the plans told The Information that advisers involved in the process expect the IPO could raise more than 75 billion dollars, potentially making it the largest stock market debut ever and eclipsing Saudi Aramco’s 29.4 billion dollar offering in 2019.

The filing would mark the formal start of what has long been rumored: SpaceX’s transition from a closely held private powerhouse to a publicly traded company.

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The timing aligns with earlier signals.

In late February, Bloomberg reported that SpaceX was targeting a confidential IPO filing in March and a possible public listing in June, with a valuation north of 1.75 trillion dollars. At the time, the company’s private valuation hovered around 1.25 trillion dollars.

SpaceX considering confidential IPO filing this March: report

Starlink, SpaceX’s satellite internet constellation, has been the primary driver of that surge, now serving millions of customers worldwide and generating steady revenue. Recent Starship test flights and a record pace of Falcon launches have further bolstered investor confidence.

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Musk has hinted for years that an eventual public offering was inevitable, though he has stressed the need to maintain operational focus. Insiders have told outlets that the CEO is pushing for a significant retail investor allocation, reportedly more than 20 percent of shares, and tighter lock-up periods to limit early selling pressure.

A June listing would give SpaceX immediate access to public capital markets at a moment when demand for space-related stocks remains high. It would also allow early employees and long-time investors to cash out portions of their stakes while giving everyday shareholders a chance to own a piece of the company behind reusable rockets, global broadband, and NASA contracts.

Of course, nothing is certain until the SEC filing appears. Market conditions, regulatory reviews, and Musk’s own schedule could still shift timelines.

Yet the latest word from The Information suggests the window has opened. If the filing lands this week, SpaceX’s roadshow could begin in earnest within weeks, setting the stage for what many analysts already call the IPO of the decade.

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Elon Musk

Elon Musk launches TERAFAB: The $25B Tesla-SpaceXAI chip factory that will rewire the AI industry

Tesla, SpaceX, and xAI unveiled TERAFAB, a $25B chip factory targeting one terawatt of AI compute annually.

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Tesla TERAFAB Factory in Austin, Texas

Elon Musk took the stage over the weekend at the defunct Seaholm Power Plant in Austin, Texas, to officially unveil TERAFAB, a $20-25 billion joint venture between Tesla, SpaceX, and xAI that he described as “the most epic chip building exercise in history by far.” The announcement marks the most ambitious infrastructure bet Musk has made since Gigafactory 1 in Sparks, Nevada, and it fuses three of his companies into a single, vertically integrated AI hardware machine for the first time.

TERAFAB is designed to consolidate every stage of semiconductor production under one roof, including chip design, lithography, fabrication, memory production, advanced packaging, and testing.  At full capacity, the facility would scale to roughly 70% of the global output from the current world’s largest semiconductor foundry from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC).

Elon Musk’s stated goal is one terawatt of computing power annually, split between Tesla’s AI5 inference chips for vehicles and Optimus robots, and D3 chips built specifically for SpaceXAI’s orbital satellite constellation.

Tesla Terafab set for launch: Inside the $20B AI chip factory that will reshape the auto industry

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The logic behind the merger of these three entities is rooted in a supply chain crisis Musk has been signaling for over a year. At Tesla’s Q4 2025 earnings call, he warned investors that external chip capacity from TSMC, Samsung, and Micron would hit a ceiling within three to four years. “We’re very grateful to our existing supply chain, to Samsung, TSMC, Micron and others,” Musk acknowledged at the Terafab event, “but there’s a maximum rate at which they’re comfortable expanding.” Building in-house was, in his framing, not a strategic option, but a necessity.

The space angle is where the announcement becomes genuinely unprecedented. Musk said 80% of Terafab’s compute output would be directed toward space-based orbital AI satellites, arguing that solar irradiance in space is roughly 5x greater than at Earth’s surface, and that heat rejection in vacuum makes thermal scaling viable. This directly feeds the SpaceXAI vision, which is betting that within two to three years, running AI workloads in orbit will be cheaper than doing so on the ground. The satellites, powered by constant solar energy, would effectively turn low Earth orbit into the world’s largest data center.

Will Tesla join the fold? Predicting a triple merger with SpaceX and xAI

Historically, this announcement threads together every major Musk initiative of the past two years: the xAI-SpaceX merger, Tesla’s $2.9 billion solar equipment talks with Chinese suppliers, the 100 GW domestic solar manufacturing push, the Optimus humanoid robot program, and Starship’s development. TERAFAB is the capstone that ties them into a single coherent architecture — chips made on Earth, launched by SpaceX, powered by Tesla solar, run by xAI, and ultimately extended to the Moon.

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“I want us to live long enough to see the mass driver on the moon, because that’s going to be incredibly epic,”Musk said during the presentation.

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Elon Musk

SpaceX is quietly becoming the U.S. Military’s only reliable rocket

Space Force drops ULA for SpaceX on GPS launch after Vulcan rocket anomaly investigation halts flights.

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The U.S. Space Force announced today it is switching an upcoming GPS III satellite launch from United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket to a SpaceX Falcon 9, a move that is as much a reflection of Vulcan’s mounting problems as it is a validation of SpaceX’s growing dominance in national security space launch. The GPS III Space Vehicle 09, originally contracted to fly on Vulcan this month, will now target a late April liftoff on Falcon 9, marking the fourth consecutive GPS III satellite the Space Force has moved to SpaceX after contracts were originally awarded to ULA.

The immediate trigger is a solid rocket motor anomaly that occurred on February 12 during Vulcan’s USSF-87 mission. Although the payloads reached orbit and ULA declared the mission successful, the company characterized the malfunction as a “significant performance anomaly” and has since paused all military launches on Vulcan pending a root cause investigation.

“With this change, we are answering the call for rapid delivery of advanced GPS capability while the Vulcan anomaly investigation continues,” said Systems Delta 81 Commander Col. Ryan Hiserote. “We are once again demonstrating our team’s flexibility and are fully committed to leverage all options available for responsive and reliable launch for the Nation.”

The broader reality is that SpaceX’s reliability record and launch cadence have made it the path of least resistance for the Pentagon, and bodes well with Elon Musk’s plans to IPO SpaceX sometime this year. Its Falcon 9 is the most flight-proven rocket in history, and the Space Force’s Rapid Response Trailblazer program was specifically designed to enable exactly this kind of provider swap for GPS missions, and effectively building SpaceX’s flexibility into the national security launch architecture by design.

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SpaceX IPO is coming, CEO Elon Musk confirms

For ULA, the stakes are existential. The company entered 2026 with aspirations of finally turning a corner after years of Vulcan delays, with interim CEO John Elbon pointing to a backlog of over 80 missions as reason for optimism. Meanwhile, SpaceX’s contracts with the Space Force have given it a formal pathway to take on even more national security launches going forward.

The significance of today’s announcement extends beyond one satellite swap. It reinforces that America’s most critical space infrastructure, including GPS, missile warning, and beyond, is increasingly dependent on a single commercial provider.

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