INSIGHTS MISSION

INSIGHTS MISSION

Subject : Science & tech

Context : NASA’s Insight spacecraft which is located on Mars has made an estimate of the size of the Martian core. It finds that Mars’s core is about half the size of Earth’s core and measures between 1,810 and 1,860 kilometres.

Concept :

• NASA’s Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) lander touched down on Mars at the end of 2018.
• It is a two year mission that will study the deep interior of Mars to learn how all celestial bodies with rocky surfaces, including Earth and the Moon, formed.
• The InSight mission is part of NASA’s Discovery Program (1992).
• InSight is the first mission dedicated to looking deep beneath the Martian surface.
• Among its science tools are a seismometer for detecting quakes, sensors for gauging wind and air pressure, a magnetometer, and a heat flow probe designed to take the planet’s temperature.
• It is being supported by a number of European partners, which include France’s Centre National d’ÉtudesSpatiales (CNES), the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the United Kingdom Space Agency (UKSA).