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Space Explorer

NASA/JPL-CALTECH

Meet the Mars 2020 Rover. It is a robotic robotic MONTY RAKUSEN—GETTY IMAGES having to do with robots; controlled by a machine (adjective) A robotic arm builds the cars. scientist. NASA will send it to Mars in 2020. Its job is to look for clues clue FEIFEI CUI-PAOLUZZO—GETTY IMAGES something that helps a person understand something (noun) Detectives use footprints and other clues to solve a crime. about life on the Red Planet.

The rover has one arm. That arm is seven feet long. Tools are attached to it. They are used to study rocks and soil on Mars.

One of the rover’s tools is a drill. It scrapes and cuts into rocks. It does this to collect samples sample XUANYU HAN—GETTY IMAGES a small amount of something that tells you about the thing it was taken from (noun) The scientists took soil samples from the desert. . Then the rover places the samples inside of tubes tube LAURENT HAMELS—GETTY IMAGES a long, hollow object like a pipe (noun) Can you hand me that tube of lipstick? .

Could humans live on Mars? The rover will help us find out. NASA hopes to send astronauts to Mars within the next 20 years.