[url]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19327286[/url]
[img]http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/62394000/jpg/_62394972_insight_nasa_624.jpg[/img]
[quote=BBC News][B]Just two weeks after landing its Curiosity rover on Mars, the US space agency has announced it will send another robot to the planet in 2016.[/B]
The [url=http://insight.jpl.nasa.gov/]InSight spacecraft[/url] will be a static lander that will carry instruments to investigate Mars' deep interior.
Scientists believe this will help them explain how all the planets formed 4.6 billion years ago - the Earth included.
InSight beat two other proposals in a competition to find Nasa's next relatively low-cost mission.
This so-called Discovery class of endeavour is cost-capped at $425m, although that figure does not include the rocket to launch the spacecraft.
InSight stands for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport.
It will be led from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California.
The design of the lander leans heavily on the successful Phoenix probe put on the Red Planet in 2008. But although the 2016 venture will look very similar, it will carry very different instrumentation.
A seismic experiment will listen for "marsquakes" and use this information to map the boundaries between the rock layers inside the world.
It will determine if the planet still has a liquid or solid core, and provide some clues as to why its surface is not divided up into tectonic plates like on Earth.
Key components of this package will come from France and the UK.
InSight will also push a German-built thermal probe into the surface to gauge Mars' temperature profile. This will reveal how the planet is cooling.
JPL will provide the two cameras on InSight and a robotic arm.
It will also deliver another sensor that will very accurately determine the degree to which the planet wobbles on its axis.
All the data combined will inform researchers about the internal state of Mars today and how it has changed through the eons.
It is clear from surface features that the planet was once much more geologically active. It retains, for example, the remains of the largest volcano in the Solar System - Olympus Mons.
When that activity waned remains to be established. It is an issue that plays directly to the question of life, however.
Earth retains an atmosphere and liquid water at its surface because of the protective magnetic field generated in its liquid iron/nickel core.
At some point Mars lost its global shield and that allowed the stream of particles billowing away from the Sun - its "solar wind" - to strip away the planet's atmosphere, leading to the loss also of its surface water. That change may have stifled any chance for life to establish itself on Mars.
Nasa is currently basking in the success of its Curiosity rover, which landed on the planet two weeks ago. That mission, by comparison, is costing $2.5bn.
The space agency says the InSight selection was made before the six-wheeled vehicle touched down and so was not influenced in any way by recent events.
The outlook for American Mars scientists now looks considerably brighter than it did at the beginning of the year.
Back in February, they were told Nasa's budget for Red Planet exploration would be cut back sharply; and many feared that if Curiosity was lost during its risky landing, they might not see another US-led Martian lander for perhaps 10 years.[/quote]
That's the spirit!
They still have the budget to actually do thing?
Awww, that's nice but a tad bit underwhelming.
I would be more of for sending a spaceship which would send a nice fat nuke to surface and examine the chunks. (it's more scientific that it sounds).
Yes! I hope that in the future a corporation teams up to help fund a joint operation to mars/the moon. Imagine the possibilities if NASA had unlimited funding?
Shit, NASA should just send me on a manned mission to Mars instead.
[QUOTE=cqbcat;37332051]Shit, NASA should just send me on a manned mission to Mars instead.[/QUOTE]
and why would they do that you filthy russion communist
[QUOTE=Stopper;37332008]That's the spirit![/QUOTE]
This is a good opportunity for anyone with a curiosity for Mars.
[QUOTE=cqbcat;37332051]Shit, NASA should just send me on a manned mission to Mars instead.[/QUOTE]
Ech, baby steps I guess.
[QUOTE=Reds;37332017]They still have the budget to actually do thing?[/QUOTE]
NASA is proof that a government agency can be productive and efficient without just throwing lots of money at it.
Fuck yeah!!
[QUOTE=Antdawg;37332123]NASA is proof that a government agency can be productive and efficient without just throwing lots of money at it.[/QUOTE]
Yeah, but imagine what they can d-
Actually nevermind - when they had full government backing they sent a man to the fucking moon.
How are they still doing this with so little funding?
[QUOTE=TheSporeGA;37332338]How are they still doing this with so little funding?[/QUOTE]
because space has gotten cheaper
[QUOTE=Stopper;37332008]That's the spirit![/QUOTE]
Why are you rating me zing? What pun did I make? I was honestly happy :(
[QUOTE=Stopper;37332375]Why are you rating me zing? What pun did I make? I was honestly happy :([/QUOTE]
That's the [B]spirit!
[/B]
[IMG]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d8/NASA_Mars_Rover.jpg/750px-NASA_Mars_Rover.jpg[/IMG]
2016? That late?
I...
I am deeply disappointed, really.
And when will the first maned mission be?
Fucking never.
[QUOTE=Stopper;37332375]Why are you rating me zing? What pun did I make? I was honestly happy :([/QUOTE]
unintentional spirit rover pun
[QUOTE=Scar;37332432]2016? That late?
I...
I am deeply disappointed, really.
And when will the first maned mission be?
Fucking never.[/QUOTE]
That late?
That's 4 years to prototype, test, build, calibrate, plan, etc. the mission.
Which is QUITE a lot of work.
[QUOTE=Scar;37332432]2016? That late?
I...
I am deeply disappointed, really.
And when will the first maned mission be?
Fucking never.[/QUOTE]
What? It's only four fucking years. Surprised the hell outa me that they are sending one so soon again.
[QUOTE=Scar;37332432]2016? That late?
I...
I am deeply disappointed, really.
And when will the first maned mission be?
Fucking never.[/QUOTE]
real life isn't like movies where they move from drawing board to launchpad in a month
[QUOTE=Bredirish123;37332048]Yes! I hope that in the future a corporation teams up to help fund a joint operation to mars/the moon. Imagine the possibilities if NASA had unlimited funding?[/QUOTE]
Sad thing is, that's how it's ought to be :/
This just in, Martian rocks have staged a sit-down protest at the US Rover-embassy at the GALE crater.
[QUOTE=DainBramageStudios;37332552]real life isn't like movies where they move from drawing board to launchpad in a month[/QUOTE]
So there isn't an island with dinosaurs on it?
I saw that docuementary. Looked pretty real to me.
Here's a video about it from NASA:
[video=youtube;RSTYvwodKO0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSTYvwodKO0[/video]
I too am really surprised that they'll be doing it again within 4 years, it's real progress we're making here.
I could've sworn the ESA already had a similar probe in the works (one that can drill into the planet's surface).
Reminds me, my parents were watching the news before they landed on mars a few days back, and the reporter chick asked if they were expecting to find fossils... Fossils... The guy from Nasa was totally thinking "You fucking dumbass", you could tell under his feigned smile.
I can't remember, but I think it was Fox News. Wouldn't surprise me.
Sending a man to the moon is no easy task.
And that's why we should do it. Not because it's easy
because it is hawd
[QUOTE=Nutt007;37332419]That's the [B]spirit!
[/B]
[/QUOTE]
Accidental puns are best puns.
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