NASA’s InSight mission is scheduled to launch in March of next year and this week, the lander began its most crucial round of testing. InSight stands for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport. The vessel is about the size of a car but, unlike NASA’s famed rovers, InSight will be stationary.
The focus of the mission is the the inner structure of Mars, the processes that formed it and any subsurface activities still going on.
According to NASA, “by using sophisticated geophysical instruments, InSight will delve deep beneath the surface of Mars, detecting the fingerprints of the processes of terrestrial planet formation, as well as measuring the planet’s “vital signs”: Its “pulse” (seismology), “temperature” (heat flow probe), and “reflexes” (precision tracking).”
By learning more about the formation of Mars, scientists hope to better understand the planets history. They also hope to learn a great deal about the formation of rocky planets, including Earth. Additionally, technical capabilities gained from carrying out the InSight mission will help NASA in future missions to Mars and other destinations.
“Today, our robotic scientific explorers are paving the way, making great progress on the journey to Mars. Together, humans and robotics will pioneer Mars and the solar system,” said Jim Green, director of NASA’s Planetary Science Division at the agency’s headquarters in Washington in a statement.
The current testing, taking place outside Denver at Lockheed Martin’s Space Systems facility, is designed to ensure that InSight and all of its systems are ready for the rigours of deep space travel and the harsh environment of Mars.
The testing will include exposing the lander to extreme temperatures, vacuum conditions to simulate deep space, vibrations simulating launch, checks on the instruments response to electromagnetic interference and a battery of other tests over the next seven months in preparation for the spacecrafts expected launch from Vanderberg Air Force Base in March, 2016 and landing on Mars six to seven months later.
“The assembly of InSight went very well and now it’s time to see how it performs. The environmental testing regimen is designed to wring out any issues with the spacecraft so we can resolve them while it’s here on Earth. This phase takes nearly as long as assembly, but we want to make sure we deliver a vehicle to NASA that will perform as expected in extreme environments,” said Stu Spath, InSight program manager at Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver.
Althought InSight is a NASA mission, the French and German space agencies contributed instruments to the project and researchers from 10 countries served as part of the science team behind the mission.
“It’s great to see the spacecraft put together in its launch configuration. Many teams from across the globe have worked long hours to get their elements of the system delivered for these tests. There still remains much work to do before we are ready for launch, but it is fantastic to get to this critical milestone,” said InSight Project Manager Tom Hoffman at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, California.
