User:Helpmechooseusername/sandbox

Hi all my work is also in Thiago's sandbox so it'll be more efficient to go there :)

Mars 2020 Rover
The Mars 2020 rover, part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program, is scheduled to launch in July/August of 2020. [4] This mission will collect samples for future return to Earth to provide insight on the possibility of life on Mars. It will seek for signs of past microbial life and habitable conditions while also collecting information on resources for future astronauts.The Mars 2020 rover will collect core samples and put them in a cache for future missions to retrieve for testing. Furthermore, the rover will test a method for producing oxygen from the atmosphere on Mars, characterize environmental conditions, and identify other resources for future astronauts. [4]

InSight
Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight), part of NASA’s Discovery Program, is scheduled to launch in May of 2018. It plans to study Mars’ interior to investigate the history of the evolution of this planet to provide insight on the evolutionary processes of all the rocky planets in the inner solar system. [5] Since Mars is less geologically active, it has more extensive signs of early terrestrial planet formation. The data collected will help scientists understand Mars’ history, which will provide information on the forces that shaped Earth.

Asteroids
Scientists hope that expeditions to asteroids will help develop a better understanding of the formation of the solar system. These two

“Lucy will observe primitive remnants from farther out in the solar system, while Psyche will directly observe the interior of a planetary body. These additional pieces of the puzzle will help us understand how the sun and its family of planets formed, changed over time, and became places where life could develop and be sustained — and what the future may hold.” The missions are part of NASA’s Discovery Program

Lucy
Lucy is scheduled to launch in October of 2021 to explore six Trojan Asteroids and a Main Belt asteroid. The two Trojan swarms ahead of and behind Jupiter are thought to be dark bodies made of the same material as the outer planets that were pulled into orbit near Jupiter. [9] Lucy will be the first mission to study the Trojans, and scientists hope the findings from this mission will revolutionize our knowledge of the formation of the solar system. For this reason, the project is named after Lucy, a fossilized hominid that provided insight on the evolution of humans. The asteroids studied are ancient fossils of planet formation which could hold clues to the origins of life on Earth. [8]

Psyche
The Psyche spacecraft is scheduled to launch at the end of 2022 to 16 Psyche, a metallic object in the asteroid belt. [6] 16 Psyche is 130 miles wide, and it is made almost entirely of iron and nickel instead of ice and rock. Because of this unique composition, scientists believe it is the remnants of a planet’s core that lost its exterior through a series of collisions, but it is possible that 16 Psyche is only unmelted material. [9] NASA hopes to obtain information about planetary formation from directly studying the exposed interior of a planetary body, which would otherwise not be possible. [7]

OSIRIS-REx
The Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security - Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft was launched on September 8th, 2016. [2] It will travel to 1999 RQ36 (Bennu) to collect samples of this asteroid because it is believed to be relatively unchanged. Bennu is largely made up of chondrules, clumps of molten rock held together by electrostatic and gravitational forces, that have not been altered geologic activity or other reactions, making it a prime example of the early solar system. [1]

TESS
The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) is scheduled to launch by June 2018 and will search for exoplanets using the transit method. [3] This mission is scheduled to run for two years, and it will focus on 200,000 stars near our solar system to find orbiting exoplanets. TESS is on a larger scale than missions before as it will study brighter stars and cover more sky area than the 2013 Kepler mission did. [3]