If the mission to Mars nevertheless takes place, a device will be launched on the planet, which will drill the surface to a depth of five meters and take soil samples. The decision on the fate of the InSight project will be made by NASA on March 19, 2012. However, to do this, he will have to defeat his competitors - alternative programs for landing a descent vehicle on Titan and sending a probe to one of the comets
NASA's Discovery Program envisions a series of low-cost missions that could significantly advance earth science in one direction. Among the projects under consideration today are three competing ones. On March 19, 2012, their developers will present NASA with the concepts of the corresponding missions, after which the aerospace department will make the final decision. Let's take a look at the project proposed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Photo: science.compulenta.ru
An internal survey using seismic, geodesic and infrared scanning equipment - this is how the acronym InSight stands. The lander is in many ways reminiscent of Phoenix Mars, which in 2008 became the first Earth probe to land in the polar regions of Mars. It assumes widespread use of the element base already used on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).
The idea of InSight is that, unlike its predecessors, it will study not the lifting material directly on the surface of Mars, but the soil from a five-meter depth. This material should be of particular interest, since after the discovery in 2008 of water ice under a thin surface layer of sandy deposits, it became clear that the entire surface of the Red Planet could hide completely unexpected layers. Most of all, of course, is interested in possible life: in terrestrial deserts, including the most waterless, developed bacterial films are formed just at a depth of one meter.
The descent vehicle will be stationary, which, of course, has both advantages and problems. First, about the pros: he will not be threatened by a banal accident that buried the "Lunokhod". Since telemetry is inapplicable for controlling rovers, this is a really important point: even if the rover is not buried by a landslide on the route, it may have a chassis out of order, like the Spirit. The risks arise from the same immobility: when descending onto a solid rock object, drilling will be difficult, and the apparatus will not be able to change its location. To increase the probe's chances of survival, it is supposed to be paraded closer to the equator, in the Elysium Planitia region, where there is more sunlight for the batteries and less risk of a sandstorm like the one that disabled Phoenix. Because of this, the time of its operation is assumed to be one Martian year (or two Earth years),which is four times more than its predecessor.
It will also have completely new scientific instruments - a highly sensitive French seismograph (SEIS) and an infrared flux meter, made in Germany and capable of self-burrowing into the ground. With the help of the latter, it is planned to determine the amount of heat emanating from the soil, and thereby establish the nature of the planet's core: whether it is cold and hard, like on the Moon, or hot and liquid, like on Earth. Both devices will be removed from the probe with a mechanical "hand" very close to that of the Phoenix device. In addition, by checking the signals from InSight and MRO, it is expected to obtain more accurate data on the speed of rotation of Mars and its orbit.
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Definitely, InSight is not as ambitious a project as sending a planetary craft to Titan. And at the same time, his chances of winning the NASA competition are very high: to save money, he intends to use drawings and blueprints from Phoenix, the design of which he will almost completely reproduce. The same applies to a large extent to the element base of devices. This means that the cost of the mission will be sparing, and the distance to the target is much less than to the Saturnian moon. However, if the budget cuts in funding for NASA programs continue, then in 2016 the Americans will probably not fly either to Titan or Mars.