What happens inside NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory doesn’t have to be a secret. After all, space engineers are working on behalf of us all, to the benefit of humanity’s knowledge and understanding. That was probably what the Mars 2020 mission heads thought and decided to start streaming the building of the Mars 2020 Rover, so people can take a peek and watch it as it takes shape, slowly but satisfactorily. The rover still has quite a few months before it enters the testing phase, so viewers of the particular stream should get ready for a slow ride ahead.
This type of stream, like other similar ones, is not intended to deliver action-packed stuff or even offer any kind of knowledge, but more like to act as a relaxing feed to watch. People gather around something, start fiddling with it using various tools, indulge in technical conversations that we can’t hear anyway, and then call it a day. The stream never stops, not even when the working shift is over, so people can still watch the rover sitting in the lab, waiting for the next round of assembly. Of course, viewers can always hop onto the chat box and share their own thoughts on what they’re watching. Live moderated chats will take place on this channel Monday through Thursday at 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. PT.
Mars 2020 is scheduled to launch next summer, and it’s planned landing site is the Jezero Crater. The objectives of the mission will be to explore the site and determine its habitability, check for any signs of alien life, either current or past, and send back a box with various Martian rock samples. For all of this awesomeness to unfold however, the rover will have to be built first, so, the stream is the closest that you can get into taking part in the mission at this stage.
