Nasa is set to take a good look at Mars from the inside out with a 2016 launch mission designed to uncover the secrets of its evolution and "lay the groundwork for a future human mission".
The two-year long InSight (Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport) mission will be a collaborative effort between Nasa's Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL), the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES) in France and Germany's Aerospace Centre, who will each contribute instruments set to probe the rocky planet's interior. InSight's priority will be to answer questions about the make-up of Mars' core and crust -- does it have a liquid centre like here on Earth, and why does it lack mobile tectonic plates?
"InSight will get to the 'core' of the nature of the interior and structure of Mars, well below the observations we've been able to make from orbit or the surface," explained pun-loving John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at Nasa.
By: Liat Clark, Edited by: Olivia Solon
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via Wired.co.uk
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-08/21/mars-insight-2016
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