An American space ship, Laden with European technology, for the first time, take samples from the deep Interior of Mars. InSight to find out how rocky planets like our earth formed.
Some say we focus too much on Mars. Better we should spend more time to study the moon and there are some unfinished things. So why not a moon base?
We’ve been there, so good Erfogschancen. And when we have done this, we can take care of Mars. Maybe you are right – not least because the moon is closer than Mars.
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Insight into the Interior of Mars
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Expedition into the Interior of Mars
The moon’s bodies has long been a springboard to other sky. We use it as a gravitational slingshot to with our space probes speed and to save fuel.
The moon also represents a scientific precedent. The people were there and returned unscathed. Not only we have built up since the moon landings in the late 1960s and early 70s to date is essential.
Without this, the Apollo missions, the scientists of today would have dared never dream of now country InSight Mission to Mars.
And so it goes:
– InSight-Mission launched: 5. May 2018
Launch Vehicle: Atlas V-401
– Starting Location: Air Force Base Vandenberg, California
Landing: 26. November 2018
– Land Space: Elysium Planitia, Mars
Mission duration: a Little more than a Mars year (~2 earth years); 708 Mars days, or 728 days on earth.
Key words: Mars-quakes and “travel back into the past”.
Sure, the Americans were on the moon, because it was a competition in the Cold war. But we were all especially curious, because we wanted to know more about our nearest celestial neighbor: what’s it Like in comparison to our life on earth?
And that is exactly what fascinates us also on Mars. The more scientists about Mars, the more we understand our earth. “We don’t know what we will find, and because the intellectual tension,” says Suzanne Smrekar, Deputy head of the research projects (deputy Principle Investigator) for the InSight Mission. “But to be honest, I do this because I believe that the planetology us more about the earth teaches.”
More to planetary research: space telescope Kepler is retiring
The instruments SEIS (front left) and HP3 (front right) originate from the European partners
Why is Mars so red?
We know a lot about our solar system, but much about the formation of planets is little understood. “We believe that heat is produced when Gas and dust in the solar system, triggered by the gravitational force, to form a planet. This is so much heat that the Planet is melting away,” says Smrekar – the so-called Accretion-heat. “But then the Planet cools quickly,” she says, “and the crystals start to form”.
The heavier materials sink to form the mantle of a planet. Iron and Nickel to form a metallic core, while the lighter Material rises to form a primary crust. All the rocky planets – such as earth and Mars share these basic structures. Their crusts, mantles and cores are, however, chemically together different.
And it is precisely these layers to investigate InSight on the Mars.
More:Is there life on Mars?
NASA engineers test the solar panels of the lander in January 2018
Mars on the pulse to feel
Much of what scientists understand about this early in the process and the formation of layers on a planet, you have found on the moon. But the moon can’t or won’t tell us everything.
“The pressure and temperature conditions in the Interior of the moon are not nearly as high as on earth and on Mars, so we will have, if we look at the layers of rock on Mars, the opportunity to test the us for the lunar models developed. We can then see what we have done correctly and what is a larger Planet is telling us,” says Smrekar.
InSight will test the thermal conductivity of the Red planet with a “heat flux probe”. It will depict tectonic plate movements and other seismic activities fairs. The probe checks that the North pole moves, while Mars orbits the sun. So, the researchers want to find out whether the core of Mars is liquid and what is out of iron still Inside.
Both the constructions for the study of heat flow and the seismic instruments are from Europe. So, this NASA Mission is an example of practical international cooperation, grown through decades of professional relationships between scientists and engineers.
More about the cooperation between NASA and ESA: ESA hands over Orion module to NASA
InSight project Manager Tom Hoffman and head of research Bruce Banerdt send Boarding passes with your name to Mars
One of the most important instruments of the Mission, the SEIS was developed by the French space Agency CNES.
“Earth and Mars are two rocky planets, which are created at the same time,” says Annick Sylvestre-Baron, Deputy head of the project. “The Planet is still alive with volcanic activity, oceans of liquid water on its surface, a through a magnetic field protected the atmosphere and the various forms of life, while the other seems to be around 3.5 billion years ago to have become a frozen desert.”
She says, SEIS will try to find the Remains of the Mars-pulse. “We hope that the seismic data we collect on Mars, will help us to understand the internal structure of the planet – its crust, its mantle and core – the emergence and evolution of Mars. By comparing the seismic survey of Mars with the earth and the moon, we can understand all of the rocky planets better.”
NASA returned to the French Expertise, because the CNES had already developed a Seismometer that could withstand the extreme conditions on Mars. Because it made “no sense, the work in the U.S. again,” says the researcher.
This also applies to HP3, the German center for air and space travel (DLR) has developed a heat flow probe.
The drive of the planet
HP3 has to dig five feet deep in the Martian soil, or Regolith. Similar probes are coming on the earth, much deeper: to penetrate into the soil. At this depth, you can perform measurements without being disturbed by other factors – such as changes in weather, ground water, or the like.
Mars is in this regard less problematic. Temperature fluctuations between day and night or about the year zeitten, can have up to three meters depth. The five meters.
More on life on Mars: As Mars people, the US attacks
The probe is decelerated with such a Supersonic parachute
“The heat escapes from a planet that is similar to the heat of your car engine. If you go full throttle, the car will be hot. If the car travels less, there is less heat. The waste heat of a machine, a heat engine is a measure of your activity. And the planets take their internal heat and convert it into deformation of the surface, such as mountains, volcanoes, or generate a magnetic field, tectonics and so on,” says Tilman Spohn, scientific lead of HP3.
Of Mars created in the Moment, no magnetic field, but in the past he had one. Maybe this is a sign of its decay.
There are two main components of HP3: metal “mole”, to break like a Hammer through the bottom, and a slender leash with temperature sensors. “If we go down, we are all 50 centimeters, and heat up the outer hull of the mole. Then, we observe rise in the temperature, and the thermal conductivity of the Regolith to calculate,” says Spohn. “We will be reading the temperature at 14 temperature sensors printed on a leash.”
More about other space probes:journey to mercury
In February 2018, the InSight went on the trip to the launch site in California
A snapshot of the collapse of the
The data show the heat flow and the thermal conductivity on Mars as it is today. But you should enable the scientists to also track the time when the Planet is created. The heat flow originates still from the original “accretion heat” of the planet.
HP3 will also measure the decay of heat-producing radioactive elements such as uranium, Thorium, and potassium. “It’s basic physics, as these disintegrate over time,” says Smrekar. “If we know the concentration of these elements today, we can project backwards and calculate how the temperature in Mars, its thermal power plant, in the past, have contributed to this.”
The landing site for the probe InSight
And this, in turn, could help us in the future, especially if the man wants to colonize the Mars.
“I would expect that liquid water is unattainable deep – too deep, that people could use it on Mars,” says Smrekar, “at most, the heat from the underground might be as a resource of value.” First of all, it is in the research but by mere curiosity. People ask questions only for your own sake. “Humanity needs to know where it comes from and where it goes,” says Sylvestre-Baron.
In fact, the InSight, if all goes well, us more about our entire solar system to teach and the secrets of life on earth airing. “If we study not only our planet, we will not understand the Evolution of the earth. We will not understand why the earth is unique, or why it is the only place that is habitable. We will not understand these things completely, when we try to understand them elsewhere,” says Smrekar. “So, save this research today, anyone’s life? No. But it is important to understand how our Planet works, if we want him to inhabit for the long term!”
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