Space
NASA and French Space Agency Sign Up For Future Mission to Red Planet
Benita Matilda
First Posted: Feb 12, 2014 02:36 AM EST
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA, and the National Center of Space Studies of France (CNES) have signed an agreement to work together on future Mars missions.
The American space agency announced that Charles Bolden, NASA administrator, and Jean-Yves Le Gall, president of the National Center of Space Studies, France (CNES), signed an agreement Monday, to team up for a future NASA Mars Lander or the Interior Exploration Using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) Missions to the Martian planet.
"This new agreement strengthens the partnership between NASA and CNES in planetary science research, and builds on more than 20 years of cooperation with CNES on Mars exploration," said Bolden in a press release of the agency. "The research generated by this collaborative mission will give our agencies more information about the early formation of Mars, which will help us understand more about how Earth evolved."
The team currently plans on launching the InSight mission in March 2016. It will land on Mars six months later. The InSight mission aims to examine the deep interior of the Red Planet and to study the evolutionary formation of rocky planets-including the blue planet. Apart from this, InSight will also look into the tectonic activity of the Red Planets and will study the impact of meteorites by using CNES's Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure Instrument (SEIS).
The instrument SEIS will help measure the seismic waves that traverse through the interiors of the Red Planet in order to determine the internal structure and composition that will in turn offer clues on what processes led to the formation of the planet during the infant stages of development.
The space agency plans to send another Mars rover in 2020 to hunt for evidence of ancient life on the Martian surface and also accumulate data that will help NASA in preparing for future manned mission to Mars. The 2020 rover is a part of the plan to complete President Barack Obama's challenge to send a manned mission to Mars in 2030.
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First Posted: Feb 12, 2014 02:36 AM EST
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA, and the National Center of Space Studies of France (CNES) have signed an agreement to work together on future Mars missions.
The American space agency announced that Charles Bolden, NASA administrator, and Jean-Yves Le Gall, president of the National Center of Space Studies, France (CNES), signed an agreement Monday, to team up for a future NASA Mars Lander or the Interior Exploration Using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) Missions to the Martian planet.
"This new agreement strengthens the partnership between NASA and CNES in planetary science research, and builds on more than 20 years of cooperation with CNES on Mars exploration," said Bolden in a press release of the agency. "The research generated by this collaborative mission will give our agencies more information about the early formation of Mars, which will help us understand more about how Earth evolved."
The team currently plans on launching the InSight mission in March 2016. It will land on Mars six months later. The InSight mission aims to examine the deep interior of the Red Planet and to study the evolutionary formation of rocky planets-including the blue planet. Apart from this, InSight will also look into the tectonic activity of the Red Planets and will study the impact of meteorites by using CNES's Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure Instrument (SEIS).
The instrument SEIS will help measure the seismic waves that traverse through the interiors of the Red Planet in order to determine the internal structure and composition that will in turn offer clues on what processes led to the formation of the planet during the infant stages of development.
The space agency plans to send another Mars rover in 2020 to hunt for evidence of ancient life on the Martian surface and also accumulate data that will help NASA in preparing for future manned mission to Mars. The 2020 rover is a part of the plan to complete President Barack Obama's challenge to send a manned mission to Mars in 2030.
See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone