August 27, 2012

Michael Mecham San Francisco

Lockheed Martin Space Systems will rely on the spacecraft heritage of the 2008 Phoenix mission to construct NASA's newest Discovery mission, a geology expedition to probe as much as 16 ft. beneath the surface of Mars.

Called InSight—Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations—the spacecraft will be launched by a Delta II-class vehicle in March 2016 and is to land on the Elysium Planitia, a large flat area near Mars' equator, the following September.

It has a nominal surface operating life of 720 days and is expected to return more than 29 GB of data about Martian geology in one planet year—the equivalent of 1.88 Earth years. Not counting the launcher, which has yet to be selected, and related services, the mission cost has been pegged at $425 million in 2010 dollars.

InSight carries two main instruments: A seismometer from the French Space Agency CNES, and a heat flow probe from the German Space Agency DLR. There also is a tracking instrument from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is managing the mission. It uses InSight's communications system to measure the planet's “wobble” as it rotates. A camera will provide mission managers with a 3-D view of the ground around InSight to help them place its seismometer and heat probe.

NASA describes the mission as if InSight was making a doctor's examination of the planet. Its seismometer will take the pulse, the heat probe will record the temperature and the tracker will measure reflexes.

This method is being used because Mars is the best specimen for understanding the evolution of the rocky planets in the Solar System, says Principal Investigator Bruce Banerdt.