{"id":18536,"date":"2018-05-06T00:29:04","date_gmt":"2018-05-05T16:29:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/insight-lander-lifts-off-from-california-kicking-off-quest-to-get-mars-inside-story\/"},"modified":"2018-05-06T00:29:04","modified_gmt":"2018-05-05T16:29:04","slug":"insight-lander-lifts-off-from-california-kicking-off-quest-to-get-mars-inside-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/insight-lander-lifts-off-from-california-kicking-off-quest-to-get-mars-inside-story\/","title":{"rendered":"InSight lander lifts off from California, kicking off quest to get Mars\u2019 inside story"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_417801\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-417801\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-417801\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/20180505_Mars_Insight_24-630x420.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"630\" height=\"420\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/20180505_Mars_Insight_24-630x420.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/20180505_Mars_Insight_24-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/20180505_Mars_Insight_24-1260x840.jpg 1260w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/20180505_Mars_Insight_24.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-417801\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">An Atlas 5 rocket rises from its fog-shrouded launch pad at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, sending NASA\u2019s Mars InSight lander toward the Red Planet. (GeekWire Photo\/Kevin Lisota)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>NASA\u2019s Mars InSight lander and two piggyback probes were lofted through California\u2019s coastal fog into space before dawn today, beginning a six-month, 300 million-mile journey to study the Red Planet\u2019s mysterious interior.<\/p>\n<p>It marked the first interplanetary mission to be launched from the U.S. West Coast.<\/p>\n<p>The launch pad at Vandenberg Air Force Base was shrouded in murk when the United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket lifted off at 4:05 a.m. PT. Near the pad, the typically foggy weather blocked the view, but not the sound.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe really heard it,\u201d NASA chief scientist Jim Green said after liftoff. \u201cCar alarms went off in the parking lot.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Spectators across a wide swath of the Southern California coast got a good look at the rocket\u2019s red glare as the Atlas ascended to orbit.<\/p>\n<p>After going into a pole-to-pole orbit, the Atlas\u2019 Centaur upper stage boosted NASA\u2019s car-sized lander through a \u201cleft turn\u201d and onward to Mars.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"NASA\u2019s InSight launched by Atlas V 401\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/EoRj24RTn6g?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Vandenberg was selected for today\u2019s launch because NASA\u2019s traditional interplanetary launch site in Florida was facing a space traffic jam, Scott Messer, ULA\u2019s program manager for NASA missions, said during a pre-launch briefing. The Atlas 5 provided more than enough oomph to get its payload into deep space.<\/p>\n<p>Just after the lander was sent on its way, the upper stage deployed two nanosatellites, each the size of a cereal box, which will make parallel trips to Mars and test miniaturized systems for spacecraft propulsion and communications during a flyby.<\/p>\n<p>NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, who was sworn in less than two weeks ago, passed along his thanks to the Mars InSight team in a congratulatory phone call. \u201cThis is a big day,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re going back to Mars.\u201d<\/p>\n<h4 class=\"callout clearfix\"><strong>Previously<\/strong>: Here\u2019s what Mars InSight and its piggyback probes will do<\/h4>\n<p>At the end of its long cruise, InSight is due to light up its thrusters and land on a Martian plain known as Elysium Planitia on Nov. 26.<\/p>\n<p>That happens to be right after Thanksgiving, on Cyber Monday, said Tom Hoffman, InSight project manager at NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. \u201cIf you\u2019re shopping online \u2026 and you want to see something else, you can put that on your other screen,\u201d he joked.<\/p>\n<p>The lander will deploy a super-sensitive seismometer as well as a heat probe that\u2019s designed to hammer its way as much as 16 feet beneath the Martian surface. It will also use its radio antenna system to make precise measurements of Mars\u2019 wobble on its axis.<\/p>\n<p>All those readings are expected to give scientists unprecedented insights into the planet\u2019s \u201cMarsquakes,\u201d its interior structure and the composition of its crust, mantle and metallic core. That could help them flesh out their understanding of the solar system\u2019s origins, and help NASA anticipate what its astronauts will eventually face.<\/p>\n<p>The $1 billion mission is a joint effort involving NASA as well as partners in France, Germany and elsewhere in Europe.<\/p>\n<p>Today\u2019s launch was originally supposed to take place in 2016, but problems with the French-built seismometer forced a 26-month delay.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An Atlas 5 rocket rises from its fog-shrouded launch pad at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, sending NASA\u2019s Mars InSight lander toward the Red Planet. (GeekWire Photo\/Kevin Lisota) NASA\u2019s Mars InSight lander and two piggyback probes were lofted through California\u2019s coastal fog into space before dawn today, beginning a six-month, 300 million-mile journey to [&hellip;]<\/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":[927,367],"class_list":["post-18536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-insight","tag-mars"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18536"}],"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=18536"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18536\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}