NASA announced in a status report that the heat shield for its Mars 2020 mission suffered a fracture during testing. It says that this wouldn't disrupt the launch date of the mission on July 17, 2020.

NASA is still trying to determine the cause of the fracture.

Heat Shield Fracture

NASA says that the heat shield was cracked during a weeklong test at the Lockheed Martin Space facility. It says that the rapture happened near the outside edge of the shield and goes around the circumference. The split on the heat shield was discovered on April 12.

For the test, NASA says that it subjected the heat shield to forces up to 20 percent more than what it would face in the Martian atmosphere. NASA cites advanced testing as one of the reasons as to why it was able to catch this flaw before the rover was launched to Mars.

To fix the problem NASA is working with Lockheed Martin Space at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. It says that it needs to understand the cause of the rift and what changes would need to be done to make sure that it doesn't happen again.

The heat shield has the important job of protecting the rover and landing system from the entry into Mars' atmosphere. It is made out of a material called phenolic-impregnated carbon ablator (PICA). PICA is able to withstand heat of almost 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit (2,200 degrees Celsius), but it is very lightweight.

Mars 2020

The goal of NASA's Mars 2020 is to look for signs of life on the planet, both past and present. It is seeing if Mars once had habitable conditions in its ancient past and if it could support microbial life in its current state.

The rover will have a drill that is able to collect core samples of rocks and soils on Mars. It is then able to put these samples aside on the surface of the Red Planet. NASA hopes that another mission will be able to bring the samples to Earth.

Mars 2020 is supposed to collect information prior to human missions to Mars. Some of the tests that it would conduct include testing ways to produce oxygen, identifying resources, better landing techniques, and distinguishing weather, dust, and other conditions, which can have an impact on human visitors on Mars.

It is set to launch in July 2020. Around this time, Earth and Mars would be in good positions that allow for less power to be used to travel to Mars. This keeps costs for the mission low.