Insight and its Interplanetary Launch from California

In just about three weeks on May 5th, NASA’s InSight mission will launch from Vandenberg’s Space Launch Complex 3 north of Los Angeles. It’s the first-ever planetary launch from the west coast of the United States, bound for a region on Mars called Elysium Planitia. People living along the coast should have a gorgeous pre-dawn view of the launch.

If all goes well, the spacecraft will land on November 26, 2018. After post-landing testing, the spacecraft will begin a lengthy period studying Mars’s interior. The name “InSight” is an acronym for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport, and its instruments will do experiments aimed at understanding the Red Planet’s seismic actions and how it transports heat from its core to the surface.

InSight’s Instruments

A few years ago, I saw a talk by a couple of scientists involved with the mission a couple of years ago, and they described the mission as being able to take the planet’s pulse and take its temperature.  They showed a cool deployment animation that demonstrated how a probe will jab down into the surface once the spacecraft has landed.

The spacecraft will also deploy a seismometer (which measures waves traveling through the interior of Mars) along with that heat flow probe. How much heat exists inside Mars will reveal more about the rocks inside Mars as well as its inner core. The mission’s radio antennas will function as a radio science experiment, measuring tiny changes in the location of the lander. Those shifts will reveal more about Mars’s orbit and how stable that orbit is. There will be a pair of cameras onboard to help during instrument deployment. They will return images of the surface, as well.

While the main mission is to measure Mars and its motions, there’s a big-picture goal, too. Scientists want to understand more about how rocky worlds formed in the early solar system. Clues to the early history of Mars lie deep inside in its rocks. Changes in Mars’s interior (through quakes and other tectonic activity) gives information about Mars’s history and evolution.

CubeSat Accompaniment

When InSight launches from Earth and starts on its long journey to Mars, two Cubesats (called MarCO) will tag along. They will fly along behind the InSight lander on its way to the red planet. They’ll test data relay techniques to send back information about the entry, descent, and landing sequence at Mars.

Mars InSight is slated for an official mission of 30 days at the planet. However, it’s likely to last much, longer. And, that’s great. The more temporal data we can get about the planet, the better we will eventually be able to understand it. So, if you’re out and about early in the morning on May 5th, 2018, and have a clear view down the west coast of southern California, check out the launch of InSight. It will be a gorgeous one!