MARSQUAKE!

Doesn’t really have the same panache as an earthquake but hey, what can you do. The Mars InSight roadshow is traveling up and down the west coast before making it’s final stop at Vandenberg Air Force base in 55 days. The launch window is between May 5th to June 8th. and no matter when it launches the rendezvous date will be on November 26th. Insight will take roughly 6 months to reach Mars while traveling nearly 300 million miles.


Insight, short for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport, is a Mars lander with the primary goal of studying the core of Mars.  Insight if the first mission of it’s kind to study the innards of a planet. Unlike the last few Mars missions i.e Curiosity, Spirit and Opportunity, this mission will no be mobile once it lands.


The goal of the mission is to study seismic activity, tectonic activity and impact events on the surface. The hope is answer key questions about early formations of rocky planets in our solar system.


In the quest for these questions, three main tools will be used on the craft; SEIS, RISE, and HP3. SEIS, Seismic Experiment of Interior Structure, is a seismograph that will sit on the surface measuring internal planet activities having to do with the core, mantle and crust. HP3 stands for Heat flow and Physical Properties Probe and it will dig five meters into Mars’ crust to gather data on the crusts composition and the residual heat coming from the core.


The final experiment, RISE, Rotation and Interior Structure Experiment, will determine much Mars wobbles in orbit and will study the impact that Phobos and Deimos have on Mars’ surface just like the tidal effects the Moon has on the Earth.


As we collect this Mars data and compare it with Earth’s data, we should have a stronger grasp on what makes these rocky planets tick, how they form and what are the comparisons that help life grow like on Earth and why life doesn’t succeed like on Mars.