NASA’s InSight Mission Launches to Study Mars’ Interior

NASA’s Mars InSight mission successfully launched today at 7:05 a.m. EDT (4:05 a.m. PDT) from Space Launch Complex 3 at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, aboard a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V 401 rocket. InSight stands for the Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport. It is the first mission to look deep beneath the Martian surface.

The United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket lifts off with NASA’s InSight spacecraft, seen through a thick fog blanketing Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Image credit: NASA.

The United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket lifts off with NASA’s InSight spacecraft, seen through a thick fog blanketing Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Image credit: NASA.

Riding the Centaur second stage of the Atlas V 401 rocket, InSight reached orbit 13 min and 16 sec after launch.

Seventy-nine minutes later, the Centaur ignited a second time, sending the spacecraft on a trajectory towards Mars.

InSight separated from the Centaur 14 min later — 93 min after launch — and contacted via NASA’s Deep Space Network at 8:41 a.m. EDT (5:41 PDT).

“The United States continues to lead the way to Mars with this next exciting mission to study the Red Planet’s core and geological processes,” said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine.

“I want to congratulate all the teams from NASA and our international partners who made this accomplishment possible. As we continue to gain momentum in our work to send astronauts back to the Moon and on to Mars, missions like InSight are going to prove invaluable.”

“The Kennedy Space Center and ULA teams gave us a great ride today and started InSight on our six-and-a-half-month journey to Mars,” said Dr. Tom Hoffman, InSight project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

“We’ve received positive indication the InSight spacecraft is in good health and we are all excited to be going to Mars once again to do groundbreaking science.”

With its successful launch, NASA’s InSight team now is focusing on the six-month voyage.

During the cruise phase of the mission, engineers will check out the spacecraft’s subsystems and science instruments, making sure its solar arrays and antenna are oriented properly, tracking its trajectory and performing maneuvers to keep it on course.

InSight is scheduled to land on Mars on November 26, 2018, where it will conduct science operations until November 24, 2020, which equates to one year and 40 days on Mars, or nearly two Earth years.

“Scientists have been dreaming about doing seismology on Mars for years. In my case, I had that dream 40 years ago as a graduate student, and now that shared dream has been lofted through the clouds and into reality,” said InSight principal investigator Dr. Bruce Banerdt, also from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

An artist’s impression of the InSight lander on Mars. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

An artist’s impression of the InSight lander on Mars. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

InSight will be the first mission to peer deep beneath the Martian surface, studying the planet’s interior by measuring its heat output and listening for marsquakes, which are seismic events similar to earthquakes on Earth.

It will use the seismic waves generated by marsquakes to develop a map of the planet’s deep interior. The resulting insight into Mars’ formation will help us better understand how other rocky planets, including Earth, were and are created.

“Seismology, the study of quakes, has already revealed some of the answers here on Earth. But Earth has been churning its geologic record for billions of years, hiding its most ancient history. Mars, at half the size of Earth, churns far less: it’s a fossil planet, preserving the history of its early birth,” Dr. Banerdt said.

“During formation, this ball of featureless rock metamorphosed into a diverse and fascinating planet, almost like caterpillar to a butterfly.”

“We want to use seismology to learn why Mars formed the way it did, and how planets take shape in general.”

InSight will measure more than seismology. The Doppler shift from a radio signal on the lander can reveal whether the planet’s core is still molten; a self-burrowing probe is designed to measure heat from the interior. Wind, pressure and temperature sensors will allow scientists to subtract vibrational ‘noise’ caused by weather. Combining all this data will give us the most complete picture of Mars yet.

“InSight will not only teach us about Mars, it will enhance our understanding of formation of other rocky worlds like Earth and the Moon, and thousands of planets around other stars, said Dr. Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate at the agency headquarters in Washington.

“InSight will help us unlock the mysteries of Mars in a new way, by not just studying the surface of the planet, but by looking deep inside to help us learn about the earliest building blocks of the planet,” added JPL Director Dr. Michael Watkins.

Hitching a ride with InSight was NASA’s technology experiment, Mars Cube One (MarCO), a separate mission of its own, also headed to Mars.

The two mini-spacecraft, called CubeSats, launched one at a time from dispensers mounted on the aft bulkhead carrier of the Centaur second stage.

They were designed and built by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and are the first test of CubeSat technology in deep space. Their purpose is to test new communications and navigation capabilities for future missions, and may provide real-time communication relay to cover the entry, descent and landing of InSight on Mars.

About Skype

Check Also

, 3D Radiogram of Mars, #Bizwhiznetwork.com Innovation ΛI

3D Radiogram of Mars

Mars is the only known planet aside from Earth that has polar ice caps, but …

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Bizwhiznetwork Consultation