The InSight spacecraft has started tests to prepare the vehicle for a trip to Mars. Several systems, including solar cells, are being tested by the space agency, and the spacecraft will face numerous stress tests to prepare for flight, scheduled to begin in March 2016.
InSight (Interior Exploration Using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport) will land on Mars, where it will be able to measure seismic activity on the surface of the planet. These events can be the result of meteorite strikes or so-called "Marsquakes." Radio signals will be used to measure the minute wobble of the planet to determine whether it possesses a liquid core, similar to our own world. The probe will also drill into the Martian surface, allowing the craft to measure the amount of heat coming up from inside the planet.
"InSight ... is scheduled to launch in March 2016 and land on Mars in September 2016. The lander will investigate the deep interior of Mars to gain information about how rocky planets, including Earth, formed and evolved," NASA officials reported.
The spacecraft will be subjected to several challenging conditions designed to test the spacecraft's ability to survive the mission. Vibration tests will simulate conditions during launch, and a vacuum chamber held at a temperature just a few degrees above absolute zero will create a spacelike environment. InSight will also be held in a Mars simulator, to assure it will be able to withstand conditions on the Martian surface. Testing will take several months to complete, mission planners told the press.
"The environmental testing regimen is designed to wring out any issues with the spacecraft so we can resolve them while it's here on Earth. This phase takes nearly as long as assembly, but we want to make sure we deliver a vehicle to NASA that will perform as expected in extreme environments," said Stu Spath, InSight program manager at Lockheed Martin Space Systems.
InSight is being developed by Lockheed Martin Space Systems, and the program is managed by Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). This spacecraft is similar in design to the Phoenix lander that touched down in a polar region of Mars seven years ago.
Testing of the parachute was conducted during February 2015, in a tunnel managed by the Engineering Development Center of the U.S. Air Force. That facility, part of the National Full-Scale Aerodynamics Complex, is 80 feet tall, and 120 feet wide.
Currently, NASA is planning on launching its first human mission to Mars sometime in the 2030s. A fleet of spacecraft and rovers are currently placed around and on the surface of Mars, in an effort to better understand its environment in preperation for future human habitation.
"Many teams from across the globe have worked long hours to get their elements of the system delivered for these tests. There still remains much work to do before we are ready for launch, but it is fantastic to get to this critical milestone," said Tom Hoffman of JPL.
