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In what could be described as a big impediment to future Mars exploration, NASA its suspending its intended March 2016 launch of the Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) mission to Mars. It was due to blast off in March and start its job 6 months later.
The US space agency NASA has cancelled the planned launch of a Mars lander in March 2016. So what is this instrument for?
“The decision follows unsuccessful attempts to fix an air leak on a key component of the mission’s science payload”, NASA said in a statement.
The goal of the mission was to explore the interior core, mantle and crust of Mars in a way that no other planet has been studied outside of Earth.
Even if they correct the problem in time for the next launch window two-and-a-half years from now, funding remains a potential obstacle: NASA already has spent $525 million of the $675 million the mission was allotted.
“Although I have personally been working toward making these measurements on Mars for 25 years, the actual InSight Mission Project has only been underway since about 2009″, he said. Its findings will improve understanding about the evolution of the inner solar system’s rocky planets, including Earth. 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 now orbiting the planet, along with the MAVEN orbiter, which recently helped scientists understand what happened to the Martian atmosphere.
Because of the leak, the seismometer couldn’t retain vacuum conditions necessary to take readings. However, during testing on Monday in extreme cold temperature (-49 degrees Fahrenheit/-45 degrees Celsius) the sphere again failed to hold a vacuum.
“Unfortunately, since last August, we have been fighting a series of very small leaks, but leaks that were big enough that we wouldn’t be able to accomplish our mission”, John Grunsfeld, NASA’s associate administrator for the science mission directorate and a former astronaut, told reporters during a call on Tuesday.
The relative positions of Earth and Mars are such that they are most favorable for launching missions between the two planets for only a few weeks every 26 months. Banerdt said the instrument would still function if the pressure were 100 times higher, at one tenth of a millibar.
The Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3), another major instrument of InSight has been supplied by German Aerospace Center (DLR). “The French space agency estimates that a handful of months should suffice, although we will probably take a little longer to make sure there aren’t any further subtle problems hiding in the wings”.
