. Mars Exploration News .




.
MARSDAILY
New NASA Mission to Take First Look Deep Inside Mars
by Staff Writers
Washington DC (SPX) Aug 21, 2012

Artist rendition of the proposed InSight (Interior exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport) Lander. Image credit: JPL/NASA

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.

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.

Related Links
InSight at JPL
Discovery at NASA
Mars News and Information at MarsDaily.com
Lunar Dreams and more




.
.
Get Our Free Newsletters Via Email
...
Buy Advertising Editorial Enquiries






.

. Comment on this article via your Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail login.

Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle



MARSDAILY
NASA wants to measure 'Marsquakes'
Washington (AFP) Aug 20, 2012
Just 10 days after NASA's Curiosity rover sent back its first color photos of the Martian landscape, the US space agency said Monday it wants in 2016 to take a better look at what's happening beneath the Red Planet's surface. "Does Mars have fault lines like the Earth does? How extensive are those? What kinds of 'marsquakes' are there?" These, NASA official Lindley Johnson told reporters ... read more


MARSDAILY
Chinese firm to send Spanish rover to moon in 2014

LRO Spectrometer Detects Helium in Moon's Atmosphere

NASA's 'Mighty Eagle' Robotic Prototype Lander Flies Again at Marshall

Roscosmos Announces Tender for Moon Rocket Design

MARSDAILY
Is China Going to Blast Past America in Space?

China unveils ambitious space projects

China's manned spacecraft in final preparations for mid-June launch

Hong Kong people share joy of China's manned space program

MARSDAILY
Space station orbit successfully adjusted

ISS Orbit Adjustment to Continue on August 22

Cosmonauts Begin First Expedition 32 Spacewalk

ATV-3 Vehicle Fails to Adjust Space Station Orbit

MARSDAILY
e2v To Supply Large CMOS Imaging Sensors For Imaging Kuiper Belt Objects

Fly New Horizons through the Kuiper Belt

Hubble Discovers a Fifth Moon Orbiting Pluto

Hubble telescope spots fifth moon near Pluto

MARSDAILY
Giant Ice Avalanches On Iapetus Provide Clue To Extreme Slippage Elsewhere In The Solar System

River networks on Titan point to a puzzling geologic history

Cassini Spots Daytime Lightning on Saturn

Saturn's Rings are Back

MARSDAILY
Vecmap tracks the Asian bush mosquito

NASA Selects Combined Data Services Contract For Polar Satellites

Proba-1 microsat snaps Olympic neighbourhood

Sparse microwave imaging: A new concept in microwave imaging technology

MARSDAILY
Singer Sarah Brightman could be next space tourist: report

For US students, plane tickets, TVs are relics

Voyager at 35: Break on Through to the Other Side

XCOR Becomes Corporate Sponsor of Uwingu, a Space Apps Company

MARSDAILY
First Evidence Discovered of Planet's Destruction by Its Star

Exoplanet hosting stars give further insights on planet formation

Five Potential Habitable Exoplanets Now

RIT Leads Development of Next-generation Infrared Detectors


Memory Foam Mattress Review

Newsletters :: SpaceDaily Express :: SpaceWar Express :: TerraDaily Express :: Energy Daily
XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News

.

The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2012 - Space Media Network. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement