NASA’s Mission to Uncover the Red Planet’s Secrets
Space missions typically fall into three categories: orbiters, flybys, and landers. Orbiters are designed to circle celestial bodies, flybys pass close to them, and landers touch down on their surfaces. Numerous missions, both successful and unsuccessful, have targeted objects within our solar system and beyond. Mars has been a primary focus, with the recent “Insight Lander” mission following the “Curiosity Lander.”
Mars, known as the red planet, has intrigued scientists and space agencies for years. Its similarities to Earth—such as a 24-hour rotation period, comparable atmospheric composition, moderate gravity (3.72 m/s²), potential for water, and habitable temperatures—make it a prime candidate for the search for extraterrestrial life, albeit likely microbial. To date, water remains the most promising discovery, with no confirmed evidence of Martian life.
NASA launched the Curiosity mission on November 26, 2011, from Cape Canaveral, and it successfully landed at Aeolis Palus in Gale Crater on August 6, 2012, after a nearly nine-month journey. Curiosity, a sophisticated robotic rover, was equipped with advanced instruments to study Mars’ surface composition, climate, and atmospheric conditions. Despite its technological prowess, Curiosity sparked controversy due to its limited returns.
Building on the experience from Curiosity, NASA initiated another ambitious mission named “Insight.” Launched on May 5, 2018, at 11:05 GMT, Insight aimed to land at Elysium Planitia on November 26, 2018. Managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and built by Lockheed Martin Space Systems, the Insight mission had a launch mass of 694 kg and an expected landing mass of 358 kg.
Insight is a robotic lander specifically designed to explore Mars’ interior. It features advanced instruments, including a seismometer and heat probes like HP3 from the German space agency DLR. These tools enable Insight to detect Marsquakes, study thermal properties, and investigate the planet’s early geological history. Success in this mission could provide valuable insights into the inner planets—Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars—and our moon.
If missions like Insight perform as expected, the dream of humans migrating to Mars may not be far off.
The writer holds an M.Sc. degree in Physics and is currently teaching Physics in Colleges, Nepal.