[meteorite-list] NASA Targets May 2018 Launch of Mars InSight Mission

[Ron Baalke]

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=5746

NASA Targets May 2018 Launch of Mars InSight Mission
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
March 9, 2016

NASA's Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and 
Heat Transport (InSight) mission to study the deep interior of Mars is 
targeting a new launch window that begins May 5, 2018, with a Mars landing 
scheduled for Nov. 26, 2018.

InSight's primary goal is to help us understand how rocky planets -- including 
Earth -- formed and evolved. The spacecraft had been on track to launch 
this month until a vacuum leak in its prime science instrument prompted 
NASA in December to suspend preparations for launch.

InSight project managers recently briefed officials at NASA and France's 
space agency, Centre National d'Études Spatiales (CNES), on a path forward; 
the proposed plan to redesign the science instrument was accepted in support 
of a 2018 launch.

"The science goals of InSight are compelling, and the NASA and CNES plans 
to overcome the technical challenges are sound," said John Grunsfeld, 
associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. 
"The quest to understand the interior of Mars has been a longstanding 
goal of planetary scientists for decades. We're excited to be back on 
the path for a launch, now in 2018."

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, will redesign, 
build and conduct qualifications of the new vacuum enclosure for the Seismic 
Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS), the component that failed in 
December. CNES will lead instrument level integration and test activities, 
allowing the InSight Project to take advantage of each organization's 
proven strengths. The two agencies have worked closely together to establish 
a project schedule that accommodates these plans, and scheduled interim 
reviews over the next six months to assess technical progress and continued 
feasibility.

The cost of the two-year delay is being assessed. An estimate is expected 
in August, once arrangements with the launch vehicle provider have been 
made.

The seismometer instrument's main sensors need to operate within a vacuum 
chamber to provide the exquisite sensitivity needed for measuring ground 
movements as small as half the radius of a hydrogen atom. The rework of 
the seismometer's vacuum container will result in a finished, thoroughly 
tested instrument in 2017 that will maintain a high degree of vacuum around 
the sensors through rigors of launch, landing, deployment and a two-year 
prime mission on the surface of Mars.

The InSight mission draws upon a strong international partnership led 
by Principal Investigator Bruce Banerdt of JPL. The lander's Heat Flow 
and Physical Properties Package is provided by the German Aerospace Center 
(DLR). This probe will hammer itself to a depth of about 16 feet (5 meters) 
into the ground beside the lander.

SEIS was built with the participation of the Institut de Physique du Globe 
de Paris and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, with support from 
the Swiss Space Office and the European Space Agency PRODEX program; the 
Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, supported by DLR; Imperial 
College, supported by the United Kingdom Space Agency; and JPL.

"The shared and renewed commitment to this mission continues our collaboration 
to find clues in the heart of Mars about the early evolution of our solar 
system," said Marc Pircher, director of CNES's Toulouse Space Centre.

The mission's international science team includes researchers from Austria, 
Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, the 
United Kingdom and the United States.

JPL manages InSight for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. InSight is 
part of NASA's Discovery Program, managed by the agency's Marshall Space 
Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The InSight spacecraft, including 
cruise stage and lander, was built and tested by Lockheed Martin Space 
Systems in Denver. It was delivered to Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, 
in December 2015 in preparation for launch, and returned to Lockheed Martin's 
Colorado facility last month for storage until spacecraft preparations 
resume in 2017.

NASA is on an ambitious journey to Mars that includes sending humans to 
the Red Planet, and that work remains on track. Robotic spacecraft are 
leading the way for NASA's Mars Exploration Program, with the upcoming 
Mars 2020 rover being designed and built, the Opportunity and Curiosity 
rovers exploring the Martian surface, the Odyssey and Mars Reconnaissance 
Orbiter spacecraft currently orbiting the planet, along with the Mars 
Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Mission (MAVEN) orbiter, which is helping 
scientists understand what happened to the Martian atmosphere.

NASA and CNES also are participating in ESA's (European Space Agency's) 
Mars Express mission currently operating at Mars. NASA is participating 
on ESA's 2016 and 2018 ExoMars missions, including providing telecommunication 
radios for ESA's 2016 orbiter and a critical element of a key astrobiology 
instrument on the 2018 ExoMars rover.

For addition information about the mission, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/insight

More information about NASA's journey to Mars is available online at:

http://www.nasa.gov/journeytomars


Media Contact

Dwayne Brown / Laurie Cantillo
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1726 / 202-358-1077
dwayne.c.brown at nasa.gov / laura.l.cantillo at nasa.gov 

Guy Webster
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-354-6278
guy.w.webster at jpl.nasa.gov 

Pascale Bresson / Nathalie Journo
Centre National d'Études Spatiales, Paris
+33-1-44-76-75-39 / +33-5-61-27-39-11
pascale.bresson at cnes.fr / nathalie.journo at cnes.fr 

Manuela Braun
German Aerospace Center (DLR)
+49 2203 601 3882
manuela.braun at DLR.de 

2016-063