But even without plates, Mars on occasion rumbles—with marsquakes—another geologic phenomenon that InSight investigators want to study.
NASA’s twin Viking landers from the summer of 1976 had seismometers to detect marsquakes but those were atop the craft and produced “noisy data,” according to JPL. The InSight instrument will be on the ground and is expected to yield much more insight into such phenomenon, which are thought to be smaller than 6.0 on the Richter scale, given that Mars doesn’t have the same plate structure as Earth. Seismic activity on Mars is thought to be from cracks forming in the crust, with the planet’s interior energy expected to be lower than Earth’s.
The Atlas V will also launch two small CubeSats that will trail InSight to Mars to test deep-space communications technology. The launch is the first time such small sats, about the size of a briefcase, have flown in deep space.
Amid the heady science and bevy of “firsts” for this mission, it’s worth noting that Mars missions have a spotty success rate of only about 40 percent, given the distance and many perils associated with entry, descent and landing.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.