INSIGHT MARS LANDER - SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
News: Why
NASA’s InSight Mars lander has tweeted it will be ‘signing off’ soon
What's in the news?
● In
a tweet on December 20, NASA’s InSight Mars lander account struck a sombre note
and said the robot currently on Mars will be signing off soon, ending its
nearly four-year-long journey to study the red planet’s early evolution.
InSight Mars Lander:
● InSight
is an acronym for “Interior Exploration
using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport”.
Agencies involved:
This mission is part of “NASA's
Discovery Program.”
Significance: It is the first mission
to study in-depth the "inner
space" of Mars: its crust, mantle, and core.
Mission Objectives:
The
lander had two main functions, according to NASA.
● To
understand how rocky planets formed and
evolved, and study the interior structure and geological processes of Mars
through its various layers, such as the core, the mantle and the crust.
● To
figure out just how tectonically active
Mars is today, and how often meteorites impact it. This included measuring
marsquakes, and more than 1,300 quakes have been detected.