NASA's Insight: Mission
By Georgia Starnes
Launch of Mars Lander
Insight is a NASA Discovery Program mission that will place a geophysical lander on Mars to study its deep interior. Using geophysical instruments, InSight will dive deep beneath the surface of Mars and detect the steps of planet formation plus measure the planet's pulse or elastic waves throughout air much like an earthquake, temperature, and reflexes or precision tracking.
- Launch: March 2016
- Landing: September 2016
How will that help?
~ It will address fundamental questions about the formation of Earth-like planets
~ Will open a window into the processes that shaped the rocky planets of the inner solar system more than four billion years ago!
~ InSight would illuminate the earliest evolution of rocky planets-including Earth.
~ It doesn't just answer specific questions about mars, it opens up answers about the entire range of planets and extraterrestrial objects!
Workers work on the making of an Insight model
Labeled breakdown of the Insight model
Animated model of Insight
Animation of InSight