Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – @BednarChuck
Assembly is complete and testing is currently underway on NASA’s Interior Exploration Using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy, and Heat Transport (InSight) lander, a new automated explorer that will be sent to Mars next March, the US space agency announced on Wednesday.
InSight, which is roughly the same size as a car, will be the first mission devoted exclusively to exploring the interior structure of the Red Planet. By learning what lies in the planet’s depths, scientists are hoping to discover how rocky planets formed and evolved.
According to Space.com, InSight was built by engineers at Lockheed Martin Space Systems, and the current testing will make sure that the lander is capable of operating in and surviving both the harsh conditions of deep space and the Martian landscape. It is currently expected to launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California and land on the Red Planet six months later.
“The assembly of InSight went very well, and now it’s time to see how it performs,” Stu Spath, InSight program manager at Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver, said. “The environmental testing regimen is designed to wring out any issues with the spacecraft so we can resolve them while it’s here on Earth. This phase takes nearly as long as assembly, but we want to make sure [the vehicle]… will perform as expected in extreme environments.”
Does InSight have what it takes?
The test is scheduled to last a total of seven months, and during that time, Insight will be exposed to powerful vibrations, extreme temperatures, vacuum conditions, and a battery of other tests to gauge its performance from long through landing. First, it will be exposed to conditions designed to simulate its more than half-year journey to Mars.
“It’s great to see the spacecraft put together in its launch configuration,” InSight project manager Tom Hoffman explained from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “Many teams from across the globe have worked long hours to get their elements of the system delivered for these tests. There still remains much work to do before we are ready for launch, but it is fantastic to get to this critical milestone.”
Once the lander reaches the Red Planet, it will use a suite of science instruments to analyze the planet’s crust, mantle, and core. This information should shed new light on how it (and other planets like it, including Earth) originally formed and evolved over time. It will also carry a pair of CubeSats to Mars to transmit data from its entry, descent, and landing sequence back to Earth.
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