A leaky instrument will delay launch of the Mars InSight lander by at least two years, NASA announced at a December 22 press conference.
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NASA is calling off plans to launch a spacecraft to Mars that would use a seismometer and other instruments to learn what is happening in the planet’s interior.
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NASA managers and French designers of the instrument said Tuesday they must now decide whether the pouch’s vacuum seal needs to be repaired, redesigned or the mission scrapped. The agency said one of the key instruments of the spacecraft can’t be fixed in time for liftoff.
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“We were very close to succeeding, but an anomaly has occurred, which requires further investigation”.
A United States technology satellite planned to start in March to Mars continues to be seated as a result of trickle in a vital study device, NASA stated on Thursday, making doubt concerning the widely-anticipated work review the inside of the planet’s potential. By the time engineers pulled the plug, the spacecraft had been moved to Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, and the Atlas V rocket that was going to send it into space was being assembled.
But while the InSight mission to Mars may not be delayed to 2018, it should be noted that it isn’t the first Mars mission to be delayed. “Gaining information about the core, mantle and crust of Mars is a high priority for planetary science, and InSight was built to accomplish this”, Bruce Banerdt of NASA said. For InSight, that 2016 launch window existed from March 4 to March 30. Earlier this month, NASA and CNES officials made an announcement that vacuum container of SEIS was leaking. Space Center Houston has been selected to display the artifacts, which will provide people with an opportunity to have a glimpse of NASA’s “Journey to Mars” project. Detailed knowledge of the interior of Mars in comparison to Earth will help scientists understand better how terrestrial planets form and evolve, as well better prepare for the day astronauts are sent to live on the Red Planet. It would have landed on Mars six months after launch.
Unlike missions to Earth orbit, which have launch windows that can recur every day, and ones to the Moon that can recur monthly, planetary missions involve a complex ballet of two bodies revolving about the Sun.
But the lander’s most important instrument, the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure, isn’t ready to handle the frigid cold of life on Mars.
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Budgetary limits may factor into a pending decision on whether NASA will proceed with the program.
