Mars, as seen by Mars Global Surveyor in 2003. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS. Full image and caption

NASA will host a media teleconference at 9 a.m. PST (noon EST) Monday, Nov. 19, to provide details about the Mars 2020 rover's landing site on the Red Planet.

The rover, currently under construction at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), will address high-priority science goals for Mars exploration, including key questions about the potential for ancient life on Mars. The rover's arrival also will set the stage for NASA's Mars exploration for the next decade by collecting samples and caching them on the surface for a future mission that could retrieve and return them to Earth for extensive study. Mars 2020 will also further aid in NASA's preparations for a crewed mission to the Red Planet.

The teleconference participants are:

Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate

Lori Glaze, acting director of NASA's Planetary Science Division

Michael Meyer, lead scientist for NASA's Mars Exploration Program

Ken Farley, Mars 2020 project scientist at JPL

Questions can be submitted via Twitter during the teleconference using the hashtag #askNASA.

Teleconference audio and visuals will stream live at: https://www.nasa.gov/live

For more information about NASA's Mars 2020 mission, visit: https://www.nasa.gov/mars and https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/

Media Relations Contact

Dwayne Brown / JoAnna Wendel

Headquarters, Washington

202-358-1726 / 202-358-1003

dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov / joanna.r.wendel@nasa.gov

DC Agle

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

818-393-9011

agle@jpl.nasa.gov