Science

NASA‘s 2016 Mars Robot Will Drill Toward Mars’ Mysterious Core for ‘InSight’

NASA‘s Curiosity rover hasn’t even been on the red planet for a month yet and the agency has already announced its next plans for a Mars expedition.

While Curiosity is gathering surface samples and taking images like never seen before on Mars, NASA wants to go deeper — literally. The agency calls this next phase, for which it plans to send another robot to the planet by 2016, “InSight.”

NASA Announces Plans for New Mars Robot Insight That Will Collect Core Data for Planet Formation Studies

Artist's rendition of InSight on Mars. (Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

“We are certainly excited, but our veterans on this team know the drill,” Tom Hoffman, project manager for InSight from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., said in a statement. “Which is fortunate, because one of the great things we’ll get to do on Mars is drill below the surface.”

The space agency decided Monday to launch a relatively low-cost robotic lander in 2016 to check out what makes the Martian core so different from Earth’s.

The interior of Mars is a mystery. It has no magnetic field, and scientists aren’t sure if the core is solid or liquid or even has frequent quakes like Earth.

NASA Announces Plans for New Mars Robot Insight That Will Collect Core Data for Planet Formation Studies

Artist's rendition of Mars' core (Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

“What kind of Mars quakes are there? How big is the core of Mars? Does it have remnants of a molten core like the Earth does?” asked Discovery program chief Lindley Johnson.

Here’s more on the tech that will help answer this questions within the next few years:

Drilling underneath the red Martian topsoil will be courtesy of InSight’s HP3, or Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package – one of the four instruments the Mars lander will carry. Made by the German Aerospace Center, or DLR, HP3 will get below Mars’ skin by literally pounding it into submission with a 14-inch (35-centimeter), hollowed-out, electromechanically-festooned stake called the Tractor Mole.

“The Tractor Mole has an internal hammer that rises and falls, moving the stake down in the soil and dragging a tether along behind it,” said Sue Smrekar, deputy project scientist for InSight from JPL. “We’re essentially doing the same thing any Boy or Girl Scout would do on a campout, but we’re putting our stake down on Mars.”

The German-built mole will descend up to 16 feet (five meters) below the surface, where its temperature sensors will record how much heat is coming from Mars’ interior, which reveals the planet’s thermal history.

“Getting well below the surface gets us away from the sun’s influence and allows us to measure heat coming from the interior,” said Smrekar. “InSight is going take heartbeat and vital signs of the Red Planet for an entire Martian year, two Earth years. We are really going to have an opportunity to understand the processes that control the early planetary formation.”

Watch NASA’s video about the mission:

The mission will be run by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab. The California lab is basking in the success of the $2.5 billion Mars Curiosity rover, which is starting to explore the planet’s surface after a daring landing this month. Earlier this year, NASA pulled out of two Mars missions with the European Space Agency because it didn’t have the $1.4 billion for the proposed 2016 and 2018 mission.

NASA is still working on another possible Mars mission to replace the canceled ones with a decision later this month.

That’s just “too much emphasis on Mars in our current plans for planetary exploration,” said Carolyn Porco, a prominent scientist who studies Saturn and its moons. “Most of the solar system resides beyond the orbits of the asteroids. There is more to learn there about general planetary processes than on Mars … Why more Mars?”

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

(H/T: io9)

Comments (17)

  • SurhanSurhan
    Posted on August 22, 2012 at 11:04am

    Allahu Akbar!

    Report Post »  
    • Chuck Stein
      Posted on August 22, 2012 at 7:00pm

      LOL — way to mock Obama’s new NASA mission to make Muslims feel good about themselves.

      Report Post »  
  • RachaelAdams
    Posted on August 22, 2012 at 9:08am

    As far as I see it, that’s a lot of money to spend considering how bad off this world is that we actually live on. We will mess this one up, possibly blow it up, but there’s another possibility! We’ll be able to send a select few to Mars to start a brand new planet. But, since we can’t seem to learn from our mistakes, it too would be doomed to human greed, and all the evils that go along with it. Fix planet earth for cryin out loud. Leave the universe to it’s creator. We have our hands full down here. But, that’s not the way of the greedy, be they geologists, doctors of any kind, professors of any kind, and all the “learned” people of the world. They can never see the forest for the trees. Let’s create our pile of trash here, then walk over it and move on to someplace else to trash.

    Report Post »  
    • FREEDOMoverFEAR
      Posted on August 22, 2012 at 5:33pm

      Exactly RachaelAdams

      Columbus should have fixed Spain’s problems before coming to America. Never try to progress unless life is perfect. Now let’s quit focusing on curing Aids and cure the common cold.

      You do see how stupid your thought process is, don’t you?

      Report Post » FREEDOMoverFEAR  
  • billrow
    Posted on August 22, 2012 at 8:09am

    It figures that this administration is enamored by the “red planet”. Maybe they think they’ll find some little green comrades.

    Report Post »  
  • huey6367
    Posted on August 22, 2012 at 7:39am

    As a geologist, this is pretty fricking cool.

    Where are the EPA’s objections?

    Report Post »  
    • FREEDOMoverFEAR
      Posted on August 22, 2012 at 5:35pm

      LOL damn EPA

      This is pretty exciting I’ve always thought our goal should be to settle another planet. It’s the curse of the White Man having to push the limits and expand.

      Report Post » FREEDOMoverFEAR  
    • 702TruthSeeker
      Posted on August 22, 2012 at 11:31pm

      see, and you guys are saying that Obummer isn’t allowing any drilling! you’re all the same you teabaggers, nothing but lies!

      Report Post »  
  • Mr.Fitnah
    Posted on August 22, 2012 at 7:35am

    What a waste of time and money ,they should be seeding Mars with Air Food and water for non muslim explorers .

    Report Post » Mr.Fitnah  
  • The-Monk
    Posted on August 22, 2012 at 12:10am

    That’s a lot of connected drill bits…..

    http://www.universetoday.com/22603/mars-compared-to-earth/

    Report Post » The-Monk  
    • lukerw
      Posted on August 22, 2012 at 5:01am

      Eventually… we have to Destroy a Planet!

      Report Post » lukerw  
  • seeker9
    Posted on August 21, 2012 at 11:10pm

    Drill, baby, drill!

    Report Post » seeker9  
    • Sirfoldallot
      Posted on August 22, 2012 at 12:20am

      lol, this is so great 4 the country & man kind , lib’s hate them self & man so going Forward is a dream 4 them.

      Report Post » Sirfoldallot  
    • lukerw
      Posted on August 22, 2012 at 4:17am

      Ironic!

      Report Post » lukerw  
  • 502_eagle
    Posted on August 21, 2012 at 10:42pm

    Will it be conducting muslim outreach on Mars?

    Report Post » 502_eagle  
    • Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra
      Posted on August 21, 2012 at 10:51pm

      Can we just start sending muslims to Mars, tell them it’s a jihad, we won’t even have to figure out how to bring them back. Although it will be a shame when they turn curiosity into a car bomb.

      Report Post » Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra  
    • lukerw
      Posted on August 22, 2012 at 4:58am

      Then… we will Discover… OIL… there!

      Report Post » lukerw  

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