Sky and Telescope - August 2018 - 8

NEWS NOTES

SPACE

Insight Lander
Heads to Mars
NASA'S INSIGHT MARS LANDER

launched aboard an Atlas V rocket on
May 5th, rising through the predawn
fog from the Vandenberg Air Force
Base in California. The spacecraft's
name stands for Interior Exploration
Using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy,
and Heat Transport. Prime contractor Lockheed Martin Space based
the spacecraft design on the Phoenix
lander, which dropped near the Martian north pole in 2008.
Insight should arrive at Mars on
November 26th after an interplanetary cruise of nearly 500 million km
(300 million miles). The spacecraft
will make a direct descent to the
planet's surface. About 6 minutes after
entering the Martian atmosphere,
Insight will use - as Phoenix did - a
combination of aerodynamic drag,
parachutes, and radar-triggered thrust8

AUGUST 2 018 * SK Y & TELESCOPE

ers. However, compared to Phoenix,
Insight is more massive (358 kg or
789 pounds), arrives at higher velocity
(6.3 km/s or 14,100 mph), and has a
higher-elevation landing site (which
means there's less atmosphere to slow
its speed).
Planetary scientists have longed for
a chance to probe the deep interior
of Mars. Understanding the circumstances of the Red Planet's formation - its bulk composition and the
size of the eventual core, mantle, and
crust - requires the kind of dedicated
geophysical investigation that principal
investigator Bruce Banerdt (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) ﬁ rst conceived in the
late 1980s. Insight will soon conduct
those experiments with a trio of key
instruments. The Seismic Experiment
for Interior Structure (SEIS) will detect
marsquakes with exquisite sensitivity.
The Heat Flow and Physical Properties
Probe (HP3) will drive a bullet-shaped
"mole" up to 5 m (17 feet) deep into
the Martian soil to calculate the rate at
which heat is escaping from the planet's deep interior. And the Rotation and
Interior Structure Experiment (RISE)
will use two transponders to precisely
track the planet's rotation and, over
time, help determine the orientation of
the Martian polar axis. "To me that's
as close as you can get to magic and yet
still be science," says Banerdt.
The selected landing location,
centered at 4.5°N, 135.9°E in western
Elysium Planitia, is near the equator to
ensure strong sunlight for the solar-cell
panels. The location was also selected
for its ﬂat, relatively rock-free terrain
and loose soil. Insight does have a
couple of cameras, but any panoramas
will probably show a boring landscape.
But the Red Planet's geological beauty
isn't just skin deep - the interior is
what will tell us the true character of
our neighbor world.
■ J. KELLY BEATTY

* Learn more about Insight's mission at
https://is.gd/marsinsightlaunch.

IN BRIEF
CubeSats Launch
with Insight
Along for the ride with Insight are
twin technology-demonstration microsatellites called Mars Cube One
(MARCO) A and B, the first CubeSats to visit interplanetary space.
Each spacecraft comes equipped
with solar panels, cold-gas thrusters, an X-band antenna, and an
ultra high-frequency receiver. Both
spacecraft also have star trackers and wide- and narrow-field
cameras. The satellites deployed
successfully from spring-loaded
launchers located on the Centaur
upper stage and phoned home
shortly after their release, indicating that their solar panels and
communications antennas were
functioning. The duo will fly past the
Red Planet come November and
attempt to relay data from the lander's descent to the Martian surface,
transmitting data from Insight to
Earth at 8 kilobits per second. While
the success of the Insight mission
isn't dependent on MARCO, the
CubeSats will test key technologies
for communication relays, which
could act like "black box" data
recorders for future landings.
■ DAVID DICKINSON

SPACE

TESS Mission Launches
Successfully
A NEW PLANET-HUNTER is on its way

to search for new worlds: The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS)
launched successfully on April 18th at
6:51 p.m. EDT aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The mission will survey
nearly the whole sky for exoplanets.
TESS launched just in time, as
NASA's Kepler will run out fuel within
several months. Like Kepler, TESS will
be looking for the brief dips in starlight
created when exoplanets transit their
stars. But unlike Kepler, which aimed
toward a small ﬁeld containing more
than 150,000 mostly faraway stars,

PAULINE ACALIN

t NASA's Insight Mars lander awaits launch in
the foggy predawn hours at the Vandenberg Air
Force Base in California.

https://www.is.gd/marsinsightlaunch

Sky and Telescope - August 2018

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