NASA’s next mission:
Probing Red Planet’s core
·
NASA’s
next mission will land a probe on Mars in 2016 to study why the Red Planet went
down a different evolutionary path than Earth did, the agency has announced.
The
new mission, called InSight, is aimed at determining whether Mars’ core is
solid or liquid like Earth’s, and why the crust of the Red Planet is not
divided into tectonic plates that drift like our planet’s surface. NASA
Administrator Charles Bolden said:
“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.
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.”
The
project is part of the first round of NASA’s “Discovery” missions. The InSight
robot will be a static lander, carrying tools to investigate the planet’s core.
However, the project is low-budget, capping at $425m — although the cost of
launching the rocket into space is not included.
The
robot will be completing a number of functions. The boundaries between tectonic
plates will be mapped through seismic experiments, a thermal probe will
determine Mars’ temperature and how it cools, and another sensor is focused on
finding out which degree the planet turns at on its axis.
Through
collecting all this information, scientists hope that InSight will tell us more
about the internal state of Mars and its changes through time.
John
Grunsfeld, head of NASA’s science division, said:
“This
is science that has been compelling for many years. Seismology, for instance,
is the standard method by which we’ve learned to understand the interior of the
Earth — and we have no such knowledge for Mars.
This
has been something the principal investigator of this mission has been trying
to get to Mars for nearly three decades, and so I’m really thrilled that this
is now at a mature stage where he has been able to propose something that fits
within the cost and schedule constraints of the Discovery programme.”
In
comparison, the Curiosity Rover, which landed on the planet only a few weeks
ago, cost $2.5bn.
Image credit: NASA
Source:www.smartplanet.com
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