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<\/p>\nNASA\u2019s InSight Mars lander is ready for the final processing sprint before its launch opportunity opens in a month\u2019s time. NASA and prime contractor Lockheed Martin held a media day for the spacecraft, whose long name is the \u201cInterior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport,\u201d at its Vandenberg Air Force Base launch site on April 6, allowing for a last up-close look before it is sealed in its payload shroud for launch.\n<\/p>\n
InSight\u2019s launch opportunity this year runs from May 5 to June 8. It will be launched on a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V 401 rocket, which is also completing final preparations at Vandenberg\u2019s Space Launch Complex-3 (SLC-3) for spacecraft mating in two weeks.<\/p>\n
The lander is currently stationed in a \u201cclean room\u201d at the Astrotech Space Operations\u2019 facility at North Vandenberg, where the NASA and Lockheed Martin team will finish final closeout activities, attach the full spacecraft to payload adapter and payload fairing, and then transport the mated assembly to SLC-3.<\/p>\n
Media Day in Clean Room<\/p>\n
InSight is currently sitting in a \u201cclean room\u201d in one of the high bays at Astrotech\u2019s facility. Like other interplanetary spacecraft, it has spent most of its time during assembly and testing in a clean room to protect against bacterial contamination.<\/p>\n
The United States is obligated by international treaty to try to avoid harmful contamination of other celestial bodies and NASA must meet \u201cplanetary protection\u201d requirements in order to get launch approval.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
InSight spacecraft in high bay clean room at Astrotech facility at Vandenberg, April 6. Credit: Philip Sloss for NSF\/L2<\/p>\n
NASA has planetary protection personnel that manage and enforce practices and procedures to keep bacteria on the spacecraft to a minimum. A primary focus is on bacterial spores.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re worried about the heartiest organisms that we have on Earth, which are microbes \u2014 specifically, a subset known as bacterial endospores or \u2018spores,’\u201d Ryan Hendrickson, a Planetary Protection Engineer with NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), explained.<\/p>\n
NASA mission updates (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});<\/p>\n \u201cThey behave similar to how bears do \u2014 with bears, when there\u2019s not a lot of food around and the temperature is getting cold, it\u2019s not very nice, they go into hibernation. Then when conditions do get better\u2026and there\u2019s a lot of food, they come back out of hibernation.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSo some bacteria have that capability, where if they don\u2019t have a lot of food around or they don\u2019t like the temperature, they can form these spores and the spores can stay dormant for up to millions of years,\u201d he said. \u201cThose are the things that we specifically measure for and have requirements for.\u201d<\/p>\n To protect against contaminating the spacecraft, everyone is wrapped in multi-layer protective garments before entering the clean room. Credit: Philip Sloss for NSF\/L2.<\/p>\n To that end, everything and everyone that is allowed in the vicinity of the spacecraft is thoroughly cleaned, wrapped up in multiple layers of protective material, or both.<\/p>\n These protocols were also used while InSight was under assembly at Lockheed Martin\u2019s Space Systems Waterton facility in Littleton, Colorado.<\/p>\n Assembly of the spacecraft was completed before its original launch opportunity in March, 2016; however, issues with a primary seismic instrument postponed the launch until the next opportunity, which opens in May.<\/p>\n InSight spacecraft and launch vehicle elements. Credit: NASA\/JPL-CalTech<\/p>\n Once the spacecraft is mated to the rocket at the launch pad, the same anti-contamination protocols will be in place for any up-close access needed there.<\/p>\n \u201cThe pad has a clean room but in most cases the spacecraft is encapsulated in the fairing which is already clean and then there\u2019s clean air that blows in and creates a positive pressure so contamination can\u2019t get in,\u201d Scott Messer, ULA\u2019s NASA Program Manager, said.<\/p>\n Spacecraft processing at Astrotech<\/p>\n In order to make the trip from Earth to the Martian surface, the InSight lander will make most of the trip flying inside an aeroshell attached to an interplanetary cruise stage. With the exception of the heat shield that forms half of the aeroshell, the spacecraft is fully assembled.<\/p>\n Diagram of InSight spacecraft elements. Credit: NASA InSight Launch Press Kit<\/p>\n It made its second trip from Colorado to Vandenberg in late February; after reverifying its systems, spacecraft was packaged up again for in a protective container for ground and air transportation.<\/p>\n \u201cIt actually had the heatshield on it and we put it on its container base and then we have what\u2019s called the birdcage that goes over that, which is another kind of protective frame with ESD (electrostatic discharge) plastic on it,\u201d Billy Jones, Lockheed Martin spacecraft technician, noted.<\/p>\n \u201cThen we put the container lid on, bolt that down with a hundred fasteners, and then, of course, it has its own temperature and environmental system on it when we\u2019re transporting.\u201d<\/p>\n Shipping container with InSight spacecraft inside is offloaded from C-17 transport at Vandenberg, February 28. Credit: USAF 30th Space Wing\/Daniel Herrera<\/p>\n After being driven from Littleton to Buckley Air Force Base in Colorado, the spacecraft was loaded on a United States Air Force C-17 military transport aircraft and flown to Vandenberg on February 28.<\/p>\n After arrival, the container was towed from the airfield to Astrotech\u2019s nearby facility, where it was taken out of the container and placed on a rotational fixture for some of the final preparations for launch.<\/p>\n \u201cWe cable up and power up the spacecraft for the first time after transport and we run a self check \u2014 [we] make sure all the systems are fine, nothing looks funny or anything happened during transportation,\u201d Jones added. \u201cThat\u2019s what we did and it passed with flying colors.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt used to be on a rotation fixture in here, so we could rotate it down,\u201d he continued. \u201cWe had a little bit of work to do around the landing radar that\u2019s facing up now.<\/p>\n \u201cThen once we had it in this final configuration, we transported it to this dolly and then we tore down the rotation fixture because we won\u2019t be needing it anymore and here it sits just waiting to go.\u201d<\/p>\n InSight spacecraft in the rotational fixture at Astrotech\u2019s Vandenberg processing facility, March, 2018. Credit: USAF 30th Space Wing\/Alex Valdez<\/p>\n While still on the fixture, Jones noted that the lander and the cruise stage were fueled a few weeks ago. \u201cThat\u2019s part of the reason we had it on the rotation fixture is we could angle the fill valves and latch valves where they exactly kind of wanted them because it was easier to get all the hoses and fittings in place and torqued on there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you\u2019re in a SCAPE suit it\u2019s kind of bulky so you want to get everything out in the open as much as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n The payload assembly is expected to be transported to SLC-3 on April 24; beginning this week, the spacecraft will begin the process of being encapsulated inside the aerodynamic payload fairing.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have a couple of \u2018remove before flight\u2019 items,\u201d Jones said, referring to the last pre-encapsulation steps of removing non-flight protective hardware. Covers for the lander\u2019s descent thrusters for the lander, the cruise stage thrusters, and the star trackers still need to be removed.<\/p>\n One of the three lift fittings on the heat shield. After the heat shield is attached, these will be removed and replaced with a Thermal Protection System (TPS) plug. Credit: Philip Sloss for NSF\/L2.<\/p>\n At that point, the spacecraft is ready to start encapsulation. The payload adapter and payload fairing are currently waiting in the high bay next door at Astrotech.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019ll bring their PLA (Payload Adapter), what they call their PLA ring in here,\u201d Jones said, referring to ULA. The PLA will be on another dolly. Minus the heatshield, the spacecraft will be lifted onto the PLA first.<\/p>\n \u201cThen it\u2019s pretty much put the heat shield on [and] bolt it up to all the sep fittings,\u201d he continued. \u201cAnd then take the lift fittings off and fill the little holes that we have the lift fittings bolted into right now with TPS (Thermal Protection System) plugs so obviously we don\u2019t want any hot spots when we\u2019re coming in.\u201d<\/p>\n The halves of the payload fairing at Astrotech, April 6. Credit: Philip Sloss for NSF\/L2.<\/p>\n Then the two halves of the payload fairing will be rolled into the high bay and put together around the spacecraft and adapter.<\/p>\n Launch vehicle processing at SLC-3<\/p>\n In parallel with final spacecraft preparations, ULA has assembled the mission\u2019s Atlas V 401 launch vehicle on the pad at SLC-3. The Atlas booster stage was transported to the pad on March 2 and placed on the launch mount the next day.<\/p>\n The Centaur upper stage arrived at the pad and was stacked on top of the booster on March 6, followed by mating boattail that connects the Centaur to the payload fairing on March 8.<\/p>\n Atlas booster stage being lifted onto the launch mount at SLC-3, March 2. Credit: NASA\/Randy Beaudoin<\/p>\n A Wet Dress Rehearsal (WDR), where the launch vehicle elements are fueled and taken through a test countdown sequence, was completed on March 22.<\/p>\n Due to their orbits around the Sun, opportunities to launch with the minimum energy necessary to get from Earth to Mars only occur every 26 months and only last for a few weeks. For launches of spacecraft like InSight that have short and infrequent opportunities, NASA typically requests \u201cschedule mitigations\u201d like a WDR in order to verify launch equipment and systems ahead of time.<\/p>\n In order to reduce the possibility of discovering technical problems while the planetary launch clock is ticking, tests like a WDR provide an opportunity to find and fix potential rocket and ground equipment problems before the short launch window opens.<\/p>\n Centaur upper stage being lifted at SLC-3 for stacking on Atlas booster, March 6. Credit: USAF 30th Space Wing\/Arron Taubman<\/p>\n \u201cThe Wet Dress adds about two or three days to the overall launch campaign, so it\u2019s not a lot but we do have to take that into account,\u201d Messer noted. \u201c[At] Vandenberg because don\u2019t launch quite as frequently we still do a Wet Dress Rehearsal for every launch out here, and certainly for planetary [launches] to NASA requirements we do the wet dress.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s quite a bit of testing, both spacecraft as well as launch vehicle testing,\u201d Messer said once the payload is mated to the rocket. \u201cIt\u2019ll take two weeks from the time that we get it out there to the time when we launch.\u201d<\/p>\n The InSight launch is the first planetary mission to fly from Vandenberg; all prior missions launched from the U.S. have launched from Florida, where the launch site reduces the required launch energy further. \u201cIt requires some additional performance obviously because you don\u2019t get to take advantage of the rotation of the Earth from out here as well as you do down at the Cape,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n Launch events table and diagram. Credit: NASA InSight Launch Press Kit<\/p>\n \u201cSo we take off, we do a little dogleg, we\u2019ll fly down around South America, come up the east coast of Africa, then kind of up over Russia and then separate the payload just off the coast of Alaska.\u201d<\/p>\n The first launch opportunity this year opens at 4:05 am Pacific Time (11:05 UTC) on May 5 and lasts for two hours. A two-hour launch window is available every day through June 8, opening a few minutes earlier each day. Regardless of launch day, arrival at Mars would be on November 26.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" NASA\u2019s InSight Mars lander is ready for the final processing sprint before its launch opportunity opens in a month\u2019s time. NASA and prime contractor Lockheed Martin held a media day for the spacecraft, whose long name is the \u201cInterior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport,\u201d at its Vandenberg Air Force Base launch site […]<\/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":[7758,7981,927,8987],"class_list":["post-38481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-atlas-v","tag-exoplanet","tag-insight","tag-usa"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38481"}],"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=38481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38481\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/P1090469.35pct.jpg\")
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