NASA calls off next Mars mission because of instrument leak

Mission managers had been working for months to track down a series of small leaks in the vacuum seal for the instrument, known as the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure, or SEIS.

NASA, French seismometer manufacturer Centre National d’Études Spatiales, and spacecraft contractor Lockheed Martin will now spend the next four to six weeks reviewing data and determining how to proceed.

The spacecraft was to have launched from the Vandenberg launch site in California. Without a ideal vacuum environment, the results can’t be trusted.

‘It’s the first time ever that such a sensitive instrument has been built, ‘ said Marc Pircher, Director of CNES’s Toulouse Space Centre. The vacuum would be needed to maintain the extreme sensitivity of the seismometer, which is well able to measure ground motions that are as tiny as the width of an atom. The engineering team worked to fix leak after leak, but tests mimicking the coldest of Martian conditions revealed that air was still making its way into the chamber. “We’re not giving up resolving NASA Mars Insight lander instrument leak [sic]”, Le Gall told SpaceNews earlier today.

The InSight spacecraft was set for launch in March. These leaks are “big enough that [they] would prevent us from accomplishing the mission”, according to John Grunsfeld, NASA’s science lead. It would seem that the next available window for launch will be at least 26 months away.

Grunsfeld said InSight’s science mission would have been ruined if SEIS had been sent in its current condition. “I think it’s much better that we have this discussion now, rather than sending it to Mars and wishing we had the opportunity here on Earth to fix something”.

The mission is also meant to monitor the temperature on Mars, as well as the variations in its orbit.

Regardless of Earth uses, of course, the prospect is an exciting one: Chris McKay, a planetary scientist at the NASA Ames research center, said that “the idea of growing food for human colonies in space could be a reality very soon”.

Another factor is that the “Discovery” class mission is cost-capped at $675 million-a number that includes the launch vehicle and all phases.

Later this year two new orbiting spacecraft will arrive at Mars, India’s Mangalyaan (their first mission to Mars) and Nasa’s Maven.

The decision follows unsuccessful attempts to fix a leak in a section of the prime instrument in the science payload.