---
title: "NASA Eyes New Mars Orbiter for 2022"
description: "NASA will launch a new telecommunications orbiter to the red planet in 2022 to follow the sample-caching Mars 2020 rover."
date: "2015-02-25"
modified: "2015-08-13"
authors:
  - name: "Alex Klokus"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/alex-klokus"
url: "https://futurism.com/nasa-eyes-new-mars-orbiter-for-2022-spacenews-com"
categories:
  - "Astronomy"
  - "Mars"
  - "NASA"
  - "Space"
tags:
  - "space"
---

# NASA Eyes New Mars Orbiter for 2022

![Default Futurism featured image](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Futurism-Filler-Image.jpg>)

- This Mars 2022 orbiter may use experimental technologies such as high-power solar-electric propulsion or an optical communications package that could greatly improve transmission speed and capacity over radio frequency systems .
- The 2022 probe, which is needed to upgrade NASA’s aging Mars telecommunications network, also will have a “robust” science component. The orbiter will carry remote sensing instruments of some kind, although there has apparently been no discussion yet about their specifications.
- Currently, NASA leans heavily on the 13-year-old Mars Odyssey orbiter to relay data collected by the landers and rovers on Mars to Earth.

### Author social links  
[LinkedIn](<https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexklokus>)