The announcement comes a day after NASA released the results of the first soil tested by the Curiosity rover, which found traces of some of the compounds like water and oxygen that are necessary for life, the US space agency said.
"The Obama administration is committed to a robust Mars exploration program," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said.
"With this next mission, we're ensuring America remains the world leader in the exploration of the Red Planet, while taking another significant step towards sending humans there in the 2030s," Bolden said in a NASA statement.
The plan to design and build a new Mars robotic science rover with a launch in 2020 comes only months after the agency announced InSight, which will launch in 2016, bringing a total of seven NASA missions operating or being planned to study and explore the "Earth-like neighbour".
NASA said the future rover development and design will be based on the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) architecture that successfully carried the Curiosity rover to the Martian surface.
This will ensure mission costs and risks are as low as possible, while still delivering a highly capable rover with a proven landing system. The mission will constitute a vital component of a broad portfolio of Mars exploration missions in development for the coming decade, NASA said.
The mission will advance the science priorities of the National Research Council's 2011 Planetary Science Decadal Survey and responds to the findings of the Mars Program Planning Group established earlier to assist NASA in restructuring its Mars Exploration Program.
"The challenge to restructure the Mars Exploration Program has turned from the seven minutes of terror for the Curiosity landing to the start of seven years of innovation," said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate.
"This mission concept fits within the current and projected Mars exploration budget, builds on the exciting discoveries of Curiosity, and takes advantage of a favourable launch opportunity," said Grunsfeld.
