NASA'S NEW MISSION TO THE HEART OF MARS TO LAUNCH MAY 5TH 2018

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llustration of NASA's Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) Image : NASA

llustration of NASA's Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) Image : NASA

NASA’s next mission to Mars, Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight), is scheduled to launch Saturday, May 5, on a first-ever mission to study the heart of Mars. Coverage of prelaunch and launch activities begins Thursday, May 3, on NASA Television and the agency’s website.

InSight, the first planetary mission to take off from the West Coast, is targeted to launch at 7:05 a.m. EDT (4:05 a.m. PDT) from Space Launch Complex-3 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California aboard a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket.

Launching on the same rocket is a separate NASA technology experiment known as Mars Cube One (MarCO). MarCO consists of two mini-spacecraft and will be the first test of CubeSat technology in deep space. They are designed to test new communications and navigation capabilities for future missions and may aid InSight communications.

In Sight will be the first mission to peer deep beneath the Martian surface, studying the planet's interior by measuring its heat output and listening for mars quakes, which are seismic events similar to earthquakes on Earth. It will use the seismic waves generated by marsquakes to develop a map of the planet’s deep interior. The resulting insight into Mars’ formation will help us better understand how other rocky planets, including Earth, were and are created.

 

SPACEKenneth McDonaghSpace, nasa, mars, earth, heart, astro, martian