Early in the morning on May 5, InSight was launched, along with the two tiny Mars Cube One (MarCO) CubeSats, atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket = making it the first NASA mission to launch to another planet from the West Coast of the United States.
The NASA InSight mission is the first-ever mission that will study the interior of the Red Planet and was launched with the support of France’s Centre National d’Études Spatiales (CNES) and the German Aerospace Center (DLR), CNES provided the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS) instrument, with significant contributions from the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS) in Germany, the Swiss Institute of Technology (ETH) in Switzerland, Imperial College and Oxford University in the United Kingdom, and JPL. DLR provided the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3) instrument.
Because of the importance of this mission, NASA will be holding a media briefing at 1:30 p.m. EDT (10:30 a.m. PDT) Wednesday, Oct. 31 at NASA Headquarters in Washington. The briefing will air live on NASA Television, the agency’s website and the NASA InSight Facebook page.
Did you know you can bring me to life on your screen? Explore and interact with a new 3D tool to learn about my instruments. You can move different parts and unfurl my solar panels. Click on each piece to learn more about them: vqz1s6nxlm
— NASAInSight (@NASAInSight) October 25, 2018
InSight will have a harrowing landing
Actually, any landing sequence is an harrowing event, and InSight’s won’t be any different. The solar-powered spacecraft will be barreling into the Martian atmosphere at 14,100 mph (22,700 kph), then deploy a large parachute to slow its descent. Then, as the spacecraft nears the surface of Mars, it will pop free of its back shell and lose its parachute.
At that time, InSight will go in for a gentle touchdown with the aid of 12 descent engines about 6 minutes after getting its first taste of Mars’ air. Here is a name to remember – Elysium Planitia – This is where InSight will be landing. It is a high-elevation Equatorial plain about 370 miles (600 kilometers) from Gale Crater, where NASA’s car-sized Curiosity rover landed in 2012.
“Elysium Planitia is as flat and boring a spot as any on Mars,” NASA officials wrote in a statement Wednesday (Oct. 24). And that’s why the InSight team chose to land there — for safety’s sake.
At Elysium, “there’s less to crash into, fewer rocks to land on and lots of sunlight to power the spacecraft,” NASA officials added. “The fact that InSight doesn’t use much power and should have plenty of sunlight at Mars’ equator means it can provide lots of data for scientists to study.”
For landing on nGBWw3Gpz1
— NASAInSight (@NASAInSight) October 23, 2018
Five ways InSight will conduct its science
1. InSight can measure seismic activity anywhere on Mars. Just like on Earth, seismic waves are created when internal rocks crack or shift. They travel through the planet until the waves hit the surface, with their speeds depending on the type material they move through.
The InSight lander will use a highly sensitive seismometer – called SEIS (Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure) – created by France’s Centre National d’Études Spatiales, to measure the speed, frequency, and size of these waves, giving insight into the geological formations they pass through.
2. InSight’s Seismometer Needs Peace and Quiet. That’s one reason why the Elysium Planitia was chosen. It’s flat and boring and very, very quiet. SEIS is sensitive enough to detect vibrations smaller than the width of a hydrogen atom. It will be the first seismometer ever set on the Martian surface, where it will be thousands of times more accurate than seismometers that sat atop the Viking landers.
InSight’s arm has a shield that it can move over the sensitive SEIS when the Martian Winds are blowing. The shield has a Mylar-and-chainmail skirt that keeps the wind from blowing in. It also gives SEIS a cozy place to hide away from Mars’ intense temperature swings, which can create minute changes in the instrument’s springs and electronics.
3. InSight has a nail that hammers itself. Most of us know how to hammer a nail into a board. One thing you learn quickly is to hold the nail steady, right? Well, InSight carries a nail that also needs to be held steady. The instrument InSight uses is called HP3 (Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package), and it holds a spike attached to a long tether.
A mechanism inside the spike will hammer it up to 16 feet (5 meters) underground, dragging out the tether, which is embedded with heat sensors. According to NASA, the HP3 should be able to detect heat trapped inside Mars since the planet first formed.
4. InSight can land in a safe place. This one is a no-brainer. NASA scientists specifically choose Elysium Planitia because there are fewer rocks to land on and there is plenty of sunlight available to power the spacecraft.
5. InSight can measure Mars’ Wobble
On InSight’s deck are two X-band antennas, making up a third of the instrument called RISE (Rotation and Interior Structure Experiment). This instrument will precisely track the location of the lander to determine just how much Mars’ North Pole wobbles as it orbits the sun.
These observations will provide detailed information on the size of Mars’ iron-rich core. They will help determine whether the core is liquid, and which other elements, besides iron, may be present.
