A new target launch date of May 5, 2018 will give NASA's Insight Mars lander a time reprieve, after the December 2015 launch date was cancelled and problems with science instruments caused the exploration mission to miss the launch date that was planned for this month.
The mission intends to study Mars' deep interior for InSight, which is short for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport. The spage agency plans to land on Mars on Nov. 26, 2018.
The exploration's goal is to understand better how rocky planets -- Earth and others -- formed and proceeded to develop. Until a vacuum leak in the spacecraft's main science instrument, launch was on schedule.
InSight managers collaborated with NASA and French space agency Centre National d'Études Spatiales (CNES) to decide the path forward. The plan is to redesign the science instrument and work toward the 2018 launch.
"The science goals of InSight are compelling, and the NASA and CNES plans to overcome the technical challenges are sound," John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, said. "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."
The new vacuum enclosure will be redesigned and built at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California. That lab will also conduct qualifications of the new enclosure for the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS). The latter is the component that failed in December. Leading the integration of instrument levels and testing will be CNES. The two agencies have worked out a schedule of interim reviews of the next six months to look at progress and monitor continued feasibility.
In August, we'll probably hear an estimate of the cost of the two-year delay. That part of the puzzle is being assessed right now, because first the managers will need to secure arrangements with the provider of the launch vehicle.
"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," Marc Pircher, director of CNES's Toulouse Space Center, said.
Currently, the team contributing to the mission includes researchers from 11 countries.
Both NASA and CNES are taking part as well in ESA's (European Space Agency's) Mars Express mission at Mars right now. NASA has a role in 2016 and 2018 ExoMars missions conducted by the ESA. The latter includes NASA' providing telecommunication radios for ESA's 2016 orbiter. They'll also put forth one of the main elements of a key astrobiology instrument for the 2018 ExoMars rover.
Follow Catherine Arnold on Twitter at @TreesWhales.
