NASA delays Mars probe launch

NASA’s planetary missions have been on a roll of late, led by the mini-armada of Curiosity, Opportunity, Mars Odyssey, and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter – all of which continue their scrutiny of the Red Planet. The seismometer provided by France’s Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales required a vacuum seal around at its three main sensors to withstand the harsh conditions on the mars. Key to its success is the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS), which can record ground motions of less than 1 micron (0.001 mm) over a broad range of frequencies.

The probe was slated to head to Mars in March 2016 to study the planet’s interior and reveal how terrestrial worlds (including Earth) form.

“A decision on a path forward will be made in the coming months, but one thing is clear: NASA remains fully committed to the scientific discovery and exploration of Mars”, said NASA associate administrator John Grunsfeld.

NASA has postponed its 2016 InSight mission to Mars because it can’t fix a broken instrument.

After landing on Mars, InSight was created to detect quakes and other seismic activities, as well as measure how much heat is being released from the planets subsurface and monitor Mars’ wobble – or variations in its orbit – as it circles the sun. The seismometer measures movements in the ground, some as small as the diameter of an atom, according to NASA.

Scientists have high hopes for the probe, expecting it to tell them how Mars is cooling, whether the core of Mars is solid or liquid like Earth’s, and why Mars’ crust is not divided into tectonic plates that drift like they do on Earth.

Unfortunately, during testing on Monday in extremely cold temperatures of -45°C, the instrument again failed to hold a vacuum. The two years would be spent fixing the leak within SEIS, but the InSight mission has already spent $525 million of its $675 million budget. The officials determined that the time is limited to fix such a leak.

The InSight mission is considered to be significant before NASA’s planned Mars exploration programme, which involves sending humans to the Red Planet. The ideal 2016 launch window is between March 4 and 30th.

The upcoming Mars 2020 rover was unaffected by the InSight setback.