{"id":13884,"date":"2018-04-09T00:08:04","date_gmt":"2018-04-08T16:08:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/nasas-insight-lander-inside-one-month-to-launch-toward-mars\/"},"modified":"2018-04-09T00:08:04","modified_gmt":"2018-04-08T16:08:04","slug":"nasas-insight-lander-inside-one-month-to-launch-toward-mars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/nasas-insight-lander-inside-one-month-to-launch-toward-mars\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA\u2019s InSight lander inside one month to launch toward Mars"},"content":{"rendered":"
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InSight\u2019s heat shield (left) will soon be re-installed on the Mars lander (right) in preparation for launch May 5 from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. Credit: Alex Polimeni\/Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

NASA\u2019s InSight Mars lander will be buttoned up for launch in the coming weeks at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, in preparation for its hoisting atop an Atlas 5 rocket for blastoff in the predawn hours of May 5.<\/p>\n

The Lockheed Martin-built spacecraft has completed a series of checkouts since arriving at Vandenberg, a military base located northwest of Los Angeles, on Feb. 28. Engineers removed the InSight lander\u2019s heat shield for final electronics testing and fueling.<\/p>\n

With fuel for its control thrusters and landing rockets now loaded, and launch less than four weeks away, ground crews inside the Astrotech spacecraft processing facility at Vandenberg will re-install the heat shield, lift the spacecraft on top of the Atlas 5\u2019s payload attach fitting, then encapsulate the probe inside the Atlas 5\u2019s nose shroud.<\/p>\n

Once cocooned inside the payload fairing, InSight will be transported to Space Launch Complex 3-East at Vandenberg, where cranes will hoist the spacecraft on top of the Atlas 5 launcher already assembled at the pad inside a mobile service tower.<\/p>\n

ULA\u2019s launch team completed a fueling test and countdown rehearsal on the Atlas 5 rocket last month. Such tests, called \u201cwet dress rehearsals,\u201d are not part of a normal Atlas 5 launch campaign, but officials ordered the operation as an extra step to ensure the rocket is ready for InSight\u2019s 34-day launch period.<\/p>\n

Liftoff is scheduled for May 5 during a two-hour launch window opening at 4:05 a.m. PDT (7:05 a.m. EDT; 1105 GMT).<\/p>\n

InSight has until June 8 to launch from Vandenberg, when the ever-changing positions of Earth and Mars in the solar system make a direct trip possible. Mars launch opportunities come once every 26 months.<\/p>\n

The lander will arrive at Mars on Nov. 26, regardless of the launch date from May 5 through June 8.<\/p>\n

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Artist\u2019s concept of the InSight lander on Mars, with its seismometer and heat probe instruments deployed on the surface. Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

InSight will be the first mission to another planet to lift off from the U.S. West Coast. Vandenberg Air Force Base is typically host to launches into polar orbit, a type of orbit usually tailored for climate research missions, spy satellites and some communication applications.<\/p>\n

NASA\u2019s interplanetary probes are usually reserved for launches from Cape Canaveral, where rockets take off toward the east over the Atlantic Ocean for safety reasons. A launch toward the east gains an extra boost from the speed of Earth\u2019s rotation, allowing a rocket to carry a heavier payload.<\/p>\n

But InSight is small \u2014 it will weigh around 1,530 pounds (694 kilograms) at launch \u2014 well below the lift capability of the United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket, which will fly in its basic \u201c401\u201d configuration with a four-meter payload fairing and no solid rocket boosters.<\/p>\n

That means the Atlas 5 will not need the extra energy imparted during an eastward launch from Cape Canaveral, and ULA and NASA agreed to launch InSight from Vandenberg. Fewer Atlas 5 missions are scheduled from Vandenberg, so officials wanted to reduce the workload at ULA\u2019s busier launch base in Florida.<\/p>\n

Designers based the InSight lander on NASA\u2019s Phoenix probe, which launched in August 2007 and touched down on the northern polar plains of Mars in May 2008. Diminishing solar power and cold temperatures limited Phoenix\u2019s lifetime to about five months \u2014 two months longer than its three-month prime mission.<\/p>\n

InSight will head for a broad plain near the Martian equator with ample sunlight year-round. Officials selected the landing site in Elysium Planitia for its safety \u2014 there are few steep slopes or huge boulders. Bruce Banerdt, InSight\u2019s principal investigator at NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, calls it \u201cthe biggest parking lot on Mars.\u201d<\/p>\n

No mission has landed at Elysium Planitia before, but NASA\u2019s Curiosity rover \u2014 the last U.S. craft to land on Mars in 2012 \u2014 is exploring Gale Crater nearly 400 miles (600 kilometers) to the south.<\/p>\n

Scientists usually want to send Mars landers to places that show evidence of ancient water flows, allowing instruments to study whether the red planet may have once harbored life.<\/p>\n

But InSight\u2019s scientific objectives go deeper.<\/p>\n

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Diagram of the InSight spacecraft. Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Two instruments carried aboard the lander will study the Martian interior, listening for tremors and measuring heat coming from the planet\u2019s deep mantle and core. Scientists will also measure Mars\u2019 polar wobble by analyzing radio signals transmitted between InSight and Earth-based antennas.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn essence, it will take the vital signs of Mars \u2014 its pulse, temperature and much more,\u201d said Thomas Zurbuchen, head of NASA\u2019s science division. \u201cWe like to say it\u2019s the first thorough checkup since the planet formed four-and-a-half billion years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

Much of the ancient geologic record on Earth has eroded away, but Mars may still hold clues about how it was born, accreted rock and dust, and formed a hot, high-pressure mantle and core as heavier elements sunk deep beneath its surface.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow we get from a ball of featureless rock into a planet that may or may not support life is a key question in planetary science,\u201d Banerdt said. \u201cAnd these processes that do this all happen in the first tens of millions of years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Discoveries made by InSight at Mars could inform scientists how the Earth formed and evolved.<\/p>\n

\u201cMars is a smaller planet,\u201d Banerdt said. \u201cIt\u2019s less active than the Earth, so it has retained the fingerprints of those early processes in its basic structure \u2014 the thickness of the crust, the compositon of the mantle, the size and composition of its core,\u201d he said. \u201cBy mapping out these boundaries, these various different sections of the inside of the planet, we can then understand better how the planet formed, and how our planet got to be the way it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

The nearly $1 billion InSight mission carries a French-developed seismometer package and a German-built heat probe that will burrow to a depth of up to 16 feet (5 meters).<\/p>\n

A nearly 8-foot-long (2.4-meter) robotic arm will place the seismometer and heat probe on the Martian surface next to the lander after touchdown. InSight\u2019s robotic arm was originally built for the canceled Mars Surveyor lander that was supposed to launch in 2001.<\/p>\n

Officials hoped to launch InSight in March 2016, but problems testing the seismometer instrument forced a delay until the next Mars launch opportunity this year.<\/p>\n

InSight\u2019s primary mission is expected to last more than a Martian year \u2014 or nearly two Earth years \u2014 through November 2020.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is something that I\u2019ve dreamed about, and developed my career to, for 30 years now,\u201d Banerdt said. \u201cWe\u2019ve been trying to refine this mission concept and get it ready to go, and finally we\u2019re right on the verge of taking off for Mars.\u201d<\/p>\n

The photos below were taken Friday inside the Astrotech clean room at Vandenberg, showing the InSight lander inside its aerodynamic backshell and mated to the craft\u2019s cruise stage, which will steer the probe toward Mars after its launch May 5.<\/p>\n

The cruise stage\u2019s power-generating solar panels will be launched in the extended configuration seen in these photos. Shortly before arriving at Mars, the cruise stage will separate from the entry vehicle and burn up in the Martian atmosphere, while the InSight lander makes its final ascent with the assistance of a supersonic parachute and braking thrusters.<\/p>\n

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Credit: Alex Polimeni\/Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Credit: Alex Polimeni\/Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Credit: Alex Polimeni\/Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Credit: Alex Polimeni\/Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Credit: Alex Polimeni\/Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Credit: Alex Polimeni\/Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Email the author.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

InSight\u2019s heat shield (left) will soon be re-installed on the Mars lander (right) in preparation for launch May 5 from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. Credit: Alex Polimeni\/Spaceflight Now NASA\u2019s InSight Mars lander will be buttoned up for launch in the coming weeks at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, in preparation for its hoisting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[724,2964,927,1183,25,472,367,1561],"class_list":["post-13884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-atlas-5","tag-av-078","tag-insight","tag-jet-propulsion-laboratory","tag-launch","tag-lockheed-martin","tag-mars","tag-planetary-science"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13884"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13884"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13884\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}