Next Mars landing scheduled for Monday, November 26th, 2018

We're going back to Mars, quite probably on Monday, November 26th, 2018.

So says NASA, which late last week announced that its revised schedule for the Mars InSight mission has been approved by the agency's Science Mission Directorate.

The Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) mission was expected to lift off in March 2016, but sadly the craft's main instrument, a seismograph, suffered a vacuum leak and therefore rather major damage. Back in March, NASA picked Saturday, May 5th 2018 as the likely re-launch date for the mission.

That's now been confirmed, along with US$153m needed for “instrument redesign and two-year delay” to the mission.

“The additional cost will not delay or cancel any current missions, though there may be fewer opportunities for new missions in future years, from fiscal years 2017-2020,” NASA says.

Inisght's objective is figuring out what makes rocky planets tick. Hence the presence of the seismograph, plus an instrument called the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3) that will hammer a five-metre hole into the red planet. Mars' temperature will be taken every ten centimetres. Between HP3, the seismograph, radar and cameras it's hoped we'll learn a lot about Mars' geology.

Whatever we learn it will be just a glimpse because InSight's not a rover. As we've previously noted, rovers get a chance to jiggle about and shake dust from their solar panels. InSight will have to rely on wind to keep its sunlight-harvesting kit in good condition and exceed its planned two-year working life. ®