PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA has selected a new mission, set to launch in
2016, that will take the first look into the deep interior of Mars to
see why the Red Planet evolved so differently from Earth as one of our
solar system's rocky planets.
The new mission, named InSight, will place instruments on the Martian
surface to investigate whether the core of Mars is solid or liquid like
Earth's, and why Mars' crust is not divided into tectonic plates that
drift like Earth's. Detailed knowledge of the interior of Mars in
comparison to Earth will help scientists understand better how
terrestrial planets form and evolve.
"The exploration of Mars is a top priority for NASA, and the selection
of InSight ensures we will continue to unlock the mysteries of the Red
Planet and lay the groundwork for a future human mission there," NASA
Administrator Charles Bolden said. "The recent successful landing of the
Curiosity rover has galvanized public interest in space exploration and
today's announcement makes clear there are more exciting Mars missions
to come."
InSight will be led by W. Bruce Banerdt at NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. InSight's science team includes U.S. and
international co-investigators from universities, industry and
government agencies. The French space agency Centre National d'Etudes
Spatiales, or CNES, and the German Aerospace Center are contributing
instruments to InSight, which is scheduled to land on Mars in September
2016 to begin its two-year scientific mission.
 |
| Artist rendition of the proposed InSight (Interior exploration using
Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport) Lander. InSight is
based on the proven Phoenix Mars spacecraft and lander design with
state-of-the-art avionics from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and
Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory missions. Image credit: JPL/NASA |
InSight is the 12th selection in NASA's series of Discovery-class
missions. Created in 1992, the Discovery Program sponsors frequent,
cost-capped solar system exploration missions with highly focused
scientific goals. NASA requested Discovery mission proposals in June
2010 and received 28. InSight was one of three proposed missions
selected in May 2011 for funding to conduct preliminary design studies
and analyses. The other two proposals were for missions to a comet and
Saturn's moon Titan.
InSight builds on spacecraft technology used in NASA's highly successful
Phoenix lander mission, which was launched to the Red Planet in 2007
and determined water existed near the surface in the Martian polar
regions. By incorporating proven systems in the mission, the InSight
team demonstrated that the mission concept was low-risk and could stay
within the cost-constrained budget of Discovery missions. The cost of
the mission, excluding the launch vehicle and related services, is
capped at $425 million in 2010 dollars.
"Our Discovery Program enables scientists to use innovative approaches
to answering fundamental questions about our solar system in the lowest
cost mission category," said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for
the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters. "InSight will get
to the 'core' of the nature of the interior and structure of Mars, well
below the observations we've been able to make from orbit or the
surface."
InSight will carry four instruments. JPL will provide an onboard
geodetic instrument to determine the planet's rotation axis and a
robotic arm and two cameras used to deploy and monitor instruments on
the Martian surface. CNES is leading an international consortium that is
building an instrument to measure seismic waves traveling through the
planet's interior. The German Aerospace Center is building a subsurface
heat probe to measure the flow of heat from the interior.
SOURCE: NASA
