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takyon [soylentnews.org] writes:

NASA has launched [spaceflightinsider.com] InSight [wikipedia.org], a Mars lander that will study the interior of Mars and measure "Marsquakes":

Initially flying through early-morning fog, a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket lifted off from Vandenberg Air force Base's Space Launch Complex 3 to send NASA's Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight [nasa.gov]) lander on a six-month journey to Mars.

[...] InSight is a 794-pound (360-kilogram) robotic lander designed to study the interior structure of Mars [spaceflightinsider.com]. With its two solar panels deployed the lander is 19 feet 8 inches (6 meters) long. Based on the design of NASA's 2008 Phoenix lander, the spacecraft is designed to use its eight-foot (2.4 meter) robotic arm to place a seismometer, a wind and thermal shield to protect that instrument and a self-burrowing temperature probe on the Martian surface. The probe will use these science instruments and a radio experiment called RISE to study the deep interior of Mars to learn about how all rocky planets, including the Earth, formed. The InSight mission is part of NASA's Discovery Program [nasa.gov].

"The Discovery Program is all about doing firsts, getting to places that we've never been to before, and this mission will probe the interior of another terrestrial planet giving us an idea of the size of the core, the mantle, the crust and our ability to compare that with the Earth," said NASA Chief Scientist Jim Green during a NASA pre-launch briefing on May 3. "This is of fundamental importance for us to understand the origin of our solar system and how it became the way is today."

NASA's next Mars mission will be Mars 2020 [wikipedia.org], a rover currently scheduled to launch in July 2020. InSight is the Discovery Program's [wikipedia.org] 12th mission. The next two to launch will be Lucy [wikipedia.org] (2021) and Psyche [wikipedia.org] (2022). NASA will launch the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Follow-On [nasa.gov] (GRACE-FO [wikipedia.org]) no earlier than May 19.

Also at BBC [bbc.com] and USA Today [usatoday.com].

See also: Are We There Yet? How scientists and engineers handle a spacecraft's months-long journey to Mars [theatlantic.com]

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