NASA Insight: Next Mars Lander Will Peer Deep Into Red Planet's History

A still from an animation shows NASA's new InSight Mars Lander lowering a drill onto Mars to analyze the planet's interior.

Credit: NASA/JPL

NASA's next Mars lander, now under construction, will probe the inner workings and early stages of the Red Planet's development billions of years ago.

The InSight mission (Interior exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport), a NASA Discovery Program spacecraft, is built to respond to highly focused scientific goals.

"Things are coming together," said Stu Spath, InSight program manager here at Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company, the aerospace firm building the Mars spacecraft for its 2016 liftoff.

NASA Phoenix Mars Lander

Powered descent
In many ways, InSight is a technological kissing cousin to the NASA Phoenix Mars Lander of 2008, which was equipped to investigate ice and soil on Mars's far-northern region.

InSight's will mirror the Phoenix mission in its blistering entry into the Martian atmosphere; parachute deployment; self-controlled, powered descent; and gentle meeting with the planet's surface on three outstretched landing legs.

"The lander structurally looks extremely similar to Phoenix," Spath told reporters. However the new craft's internal electronics, such as its power distribution unit and command and data handling hardware, have been updated.

Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution mission (MAVEN)

InSight's avionics draw from other spacecraft built by Lockheed Martin, Spath said. Specifically, it takes cues from the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution mission (MAVEN) en route to the Red Planet, the Juno craft headed for Jupiter, and the now-completed twin Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission probes that were sent to the moon.

Stu Spath, InSight program manager at Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company, near the back shell for the Mars-bound Interior exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) spacecraft.

Credit: Lockheed Martin

Two chief instruments
The InSight mission will last a Mars year, or roughly two Earth years.

That is 630 days longer than the Phoenix mission lasted, which means that the lander will have to endure a wider range of environmental conditions on the Martian landscape, Spath said.

InSight will study a different aspect of planetary history with instruments never previously used on Mars, Spath said.

The Mars lander's scientific payload consists of two chief instruments:

The Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure provided by the French Space Agency.

A Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package provided by the German Space Agency.

Additionally, the Rotation and Interior Structure Experiment (RISE), led by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), will use the lander's X-band radio system to make ultra-precise measurements of planetary rotation.

Wind and temperature sensors from Spain's Centro de Astrobiologia and a pressure sensor will monitor weather at the landing site. A lander magnetometer will measure magnetic disturbances caused by the Martian ionosphere.

NASA's InSight lander mission would add to the number of successful touchdowns on the Red Planet.

Credit: NASA/JPL

Come together
"It is very exciting, seeing the flight hardware start to come together," said Bruce Banerdt, the principal investigator for the InSight mission to Mars at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California.

"At the same time, this is a very nerve-wracking period in the project, as testing of our instruments and spacecraft subsystems uncover subtle design and manufacturing problems that inevitably occur, and that must be corrected in the short time, just over one and a half years, before launch," Banerdt told reporters.

The cost of the InSight mission, excluding the launch vehicle and related services, is capped at $425 million in 2010 dollars.

California to Mars
An upcoming milestone for the project, in aerospace lingo, is Assembly, Test, and Launch Operations (ATLO), Spath said.

That evaluation begins in early November. Next June, the InSight spacecraft will face a suite of critical tests, with ship and shoot dates in December of 2015 and March of 2016, respectively, Spath said.

After those tests, InSight won't see a speedy sendoff from Florida.

Rather, the lander will travel to Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, where a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket will give the craft a boost.

This will be the first interplanetary mission ever to launch from California, although in 1994, the joint Ballistic Missile Defense Organization/NASA Clementine spacecraft that studied the moon and an asteroid headed off from that launch area.

Once Mars-bound, InSight will fly a quick trip. After roughly 6.5 months in transit, the craft will stick a landing in the southern Elysium region of Mars in September 2016.

The specific touchdown zone is still under discussion, with Mars researchers making use of super-sharp imagery from the NASA Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) to decide InSight's precise destination.

New Mars map reveals history of a surface modified by water

A new geological map of part of the ancient Martian highlands produced by Scott C. Mest and David A. Crown of the Planetary Science Institute provides new insights into the planet's history of water modifying the planet's surface.

"This map depicts the complicated sequence of geologic processes that have served to modify ancient, rugged highland terrains surrounding the Hellas impact basin and shows evidence for the persistent effects of water and ice in degrading the Martian surface," Crown said.

The most prominent examples for the presence of water in this area are the canyon systems of Waikato Vallis in the north part of the map and Reull Vallis in the central part of the map.

These canyons are believed to have formed when underground water was released from plains materials to the surface, causing the ground to collapse.

The water could have been stored within the plains in localized aquifers or as ice, which could have melted due to the heat from nearby volcanoes.

"The canyon systems of Waikato Vallis and Reull Vallis are unlike anything we see here on Earth, so trying to understand how they formed requires us to be detectives," Mest said.

"We use images and topographic data from spacecraft to map the locations of these features, evaluate their relationships to each other, and estimate their ages from superposed impact craters, then we can begin to get a better understanding of the geologic processes that modified the surface and the sequences of events that present us with the surface we see today."

Based on Viking Orbiter images, Waikato and Reull Valles were thought to have been part of one long system.

However, by conducting detailed mapping using many of the newest and highest resolution data (e.g., MRO CTX, MRO HiRISE, Mars Odyssey THEMIS, and MOLA), Mest and Crown were able to show that these were two separate systems separated by an area of plains (Eridania Planitia).

Careful estimates of the ages of the canyons and the plains reveal a sequence of events starting with the water released from Waikato Vallis, which would have been stored for a time in the plains as a shallow lake.

As Reull Vallis was forming separately, the canyon breached a crater rim that was holding back the water in the lake; the lake drained gradually, which can be seen by many smaller channels incised on the floor of Reull Vallis.

In addition to these systems that dominate the landscape in this area, the plains and highland terrains contain many small channels that were carved by water flowing over the surface, likely around the same time that the canyons were forming.

Lastly, most highland peaks and the walls of many impact craters show evidence that ice-rich sediments flowed downhill, forming features that resemble rock glaciers on Earth; these features represent the most recent water-related activity in the area, and may be active today.

More information: "Geologic Map of MTM -30247, -35247 and -40247 Quadrangles, Reull Vallis Region of Mars" is published as a U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Map: pubs.usgs.gov/sim/3245/

Chronology of Christmas Island's volcanic history unearthed

Researchers established the age of the various rocks on Christmas Island at the time they were erupted, and established the position of the island through time. 

Credit: Peter McKiernan

Geological samples from Christmas Island have been analysed by a West Australian scientist, giving valuable insight into its unique volcanic history.

Curtin University geochronologist Dr Fred Jourdan says while continents are often the subject of geological investigation, ocean geology is less studied and the results of the Christmas Island study adds important information to the field.

The report he co-authored has been published in Gondwana Research.

It describes the Christmas Island area as an extensive zone of volcanism in the north-east Indian Ocean, consisting of numerous submerged seamounts and flat topped guyots.

It explains the island has experienced multiple episodes of volcanism that are exposed sporadically along its coastline.

It is the only island in the region to show intraplate volcanism in the form of basaltic rocks that are exposed above sea level.

Dr Jourdan says the project was a collaboration with Macquarie University. Samples were collected by a student from Macquarie University and tested at Curtin University using 40Ar/39Ar geochronology and paleomagnetism.

Dr Jourdan says this is where the 'real science' of finding their origin began.

"What we did was two things; we established the age of the various rocks on the island at the time they were erupted, and we established the position of the island through time," he says.

"We needed to look at where it was before, to understand why there is volcanic activity at all—is it random or related to something in particular?

"We measured two different ages but we know, comparing it to other seamounts, there are in fact three periods of volcanic activity.

Three stages of Christmas Island volcanic activity

"The oldest happened when Australia and India separated and the rock left behind melted to create a seamount—that was the first volcanic activity, although we didn't sample this and at this time, the island was much further south than it is now.

"The second, happened between 43 and 37 million years ago—it happened when the continent moved north above a hot zone in the mantle.

"Nothing happened for 30 million years until, in its northward movement toward the European-Asian plate; the plate cracked five million years ago and the magma could easily rise through the cracks."

Dr Jourdan says similar low volume intraplate volcanism had previously been observed at similar tectonic settings to the Japan and Tonga trench.

"…We put forward the Indo Australian plate subduction setting as a likely candidate for this phase of introceanic volcanism."

More information: Rajat Taneja, Craig O'Neill, Mark Lackie, Tracy Rushmer, Phil Schmidt, Fred Jourdan, "40Ar/39Ar geochronology and the paleoposition of Christmas Island (Australia), Northeast Indian Ocean," Gondwana Research, Available online 27 April 2014, ISSN 1342-937X, dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.gr.2014.04.004.

Planet Labs Ready To Launch Largest Satellite Fleet In History

Planet Labs has announced that it has confirmed launches for more than 100 satellites over the next 12 months. The satellites will launch on rockets from the USA and Russia.

This constitutes the largest constellation of satellites manifested in history.

These new launches will build on Planet Labs first 28 satellites, Flock 1, which were launched in January.

This constellation will allow Planet Labs to image the whole earth every 24 hours.

"We are imaging the planet to save the planet," said Will Marshall, cofounder of Planet Labs.

Imaging the Earth at this frequency will help us to measure things from deforestation, to improving agricultural yield, to detecting overfishing. Our mission is to create information people need to help life on the planet."

"Getting 100 satellites on the launch manifest is a major milestone in the new space industry," said Steve Jurvetson, Managing Director at Draper Fisher Jurvetson and board member of Planet Labs and SpaceX.

"The small form factor requires less space on the rocket, allowing for more flexibility for launch configurations and a constellation of 100 satellites is unprecedented."

This announcement comes on the heels of a $52 million Series B round of financing for Planet Labs in December led by Yuri Milner.

Moon rocks reveal surprising meteorite history

SHRIMP-2 Curtin University

Associate Prof Nemchin's discovery challenges the long-held view that there was a single spike in huge meteorite impacts 3.9 billion years ago. 

Credit: Curtin University

Alexander Nemchin, a WA geologist, analyzing lunar rock samples collected during the Apollo missions has uncovered evidence of a huge meteorite strike 4.2 billion years ago.

Curtin University Associate Professor Alexander Nemchin made the discovery when he dated a section of rock from the Moon that melted in heat of the meteorite impact.

The object that hit the Moon was probably tens of kilometers across and would have left a crater several hundred kilometers wide.

Associate Prof Nemchin says the strike happened at least 300 million years before the youngest known lunar impact basins and his discovery challenges the long-held view that there was a single spike in huge impacts 3.9 billion years ago.

He says this period of intense meteorite bombardment, which would have affected both the Moon and the Earth, was previously thought to be a one-off event.

"A few years ago we started to see evidence that it's probably not quite the case," Nemchin says.

"It's possible that there are some impacts not related to this 3.9 [billion years] spike … there are some that happened much earlier.

"It has implications for a number of things including how life evolved on Earth."

Nemchin analysed the moon rock using SHRIMP, an ion probe instrument, at Curtin University, which allows researchers to determine the age of tiny amounts of rock by examining the atoms that make up the sample.

He was able to borrow the rock, which was collected from the rim of North Ray crater during the Apollo 16 mission, because of NASA's relatively open approach to the use of moon rocks for scientific research.

"All you need is to have record of doing scientific research, you need to demonstrate that you've got a way to keep the samples safe and you know how to work with small, rare samples," Nemchin says.

"It's really very open in many ways."

Nemchin says currently the best explanation for any increase in meteorite impacts throughout the Solar System 3.9 billion years ago is that some planets were thought to be displaced from their normal orbits at that time.

He says the movement of Jupiter and Saturn, with their huge mass, destabilised Neptune and sent smaller asteroids and comets "randomly flying around" in the Solar System.

"Of course when they go all over the place they start hitting all the other planets," Nemchin says.

NASA Scientists Reveal Moon and Asteroids Share History

Scientists have now discovered that studying meteorites from the giant asteroid Vesta helps them understand the event known as the "lunar cataclysm," when a repositioning of the gas giant planets destabilized a portion of the asteroid belt and triggered a solar-system-wide bombardment. 

Credit: NASA/GSFC/ASU/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA

NASA and international researchers have discovered that Earth's moon has more in common than previously thought with large asteroids roaming our solar system.

Asteroid Vesta

Scientists from NASA's Lunar Science Institute (NLSI) in Moffett Field, Calif., discovered that the same population of high-speed projectiles that impacted our lunar neighbor four billion years ago, also hit the giant asteroid Vesta and perhaps other large asteroids.

The research unveils an unexpected link between Vesta and the moon, and provides new means for studying the early bombardment history of terrestrial planets. The findings are published in the March issue of Nature Geoscience.

"It's always intriguing when interdisciplinary research changes the way we understand the history of our solar system," said Yvonne Pendleton, NLSI director.

Yvonne Pendleton

"Although the moon is located far from Vesta, which is in the main asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, they seem to share some of the same bombardment history."

The findings support the theory that the repositioning of gas giant planets like Jupiter and Saturn from their original orbits to their current location destabilised portions of the asteroid belt and triggered a solar system-wide bombardment of asteroids billions of years ago, called the lunar cataclysm.

The research provides new constraints on the start and duration of the lunar cataclysm, and demonstrates that the cataclysm was an event that affected not only the inner solar system planets, but the asteroid belt as well.

The moon rocks brought back by NASA Apollo astronauts have long been used to study the bombardment history of the moon.

Now the ages derived from meteorite samples have been used to study the collision history of main belt asteroids.

In particular, howardite and eucrite meteorites, which are common species found on Earth, have been used to study asteroid Vesta, their parent body.

With the aid of computer simulations, researchers determined that meteorites from Vesta recorded high-speed impacts which are now long gone.

Researchers have linked these two datasets and found that the same population of projectiles responsible for making craters and basins on the moon were also hitting Vesta at very high velocities, enough to leave behind a number of telltale, impact-related ages.

The team's interpretation of the howardites and eucrites was augmented by recent close-in observations of Vesta's surface by NASA's Dawn spacecraft.

In addition, the team used the latest dynamical models of early main belt evolution to discover the likely source of these high velocity impactors.

The team determined that the population of projectiles that hit Vesta had orbits that also enabled some objects to strike the moon at high speeds.

"It appears that the asteroidal meteorites show signs of the asteroid belt losing a lot of mass four billion years ago, with the escaped mass beating up on both the surviving main belt asteroids and the moon at high speeds" says lead author Simone Marchi, who has a joint appointment between two of NASA's Lunar Science Institutes, one at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo., and another at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston.

"Our research not only supports the current theory, but it takes it to the next level of understanding."

Reference
High-velocity collisions from the lunar cataclysm recorded in asteroidal meteorites. Nature Geoscience, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/ngeo1769