NASA is ready to build the Mars 2020 rover

NASA announced today that the Mars 2020 rover has made it past a "major development milestone" in the review process and is ready for the final phases of design and construction. The agency also showed a new image of the rover’s guts, and affirmed plans to launch the robot in the late summer of 2020 with a scheduled Martian arrival in February of 2021.

The milestone that the rover passed is known as "Key Decision Point C," according to George Tahu, the program executive for the mission. Tahu tells The Verge that the 2020 rover can now enter Phase C of development, which involves final design and fabrication, before moving on to Phase D: system assembly, testing, and launch. Tahu expects to transition to Phase D "early next year."

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