Mars Insight is headed to the red planet early on Saturday morning. Yes, it’s a Mars probe, but it’s not like any other probe that’s been launched so far.
Rather than head off across the sands like predecessors Sojourner, Spirit, Opportunity, and Curiosity, Insight is going to land in one spot and stay there—the first US probe without at least a rover component since the Phoenix lander in 2007. And If a rover-less probe makes Insight sound boring, Insight is going to see a part of Mars that all those rovers have barely scratched—the inside.
Insight is packed with seismic instruments, designed to listen closely to marsquakes an ferret out what the internal structure of the planet is like. There’s long been a feeling that Mars, being only about 11 percent the size of the Earth by mass, has long ago turned into essentially a solid body, lacking the liquid and semi-solid layers of the Earth’s mantle and core. It’s clear that Mars has only a tiny magnetic field, so it doesn't have the internal ‘engine’ that generates a strong field around Earth. That was a likely contributor to Mars’ loss of much of its atmosphere and all of it’s liquid surface water. But … is Mars’ internal history completely played out? If it is, Insight may still be able to determine how the planet’s interior looked before it froze. If it’s not, then perhaps all of Mars huge volcanoes are not quite done throwing up the occasional distant Kilauea.
In addition to it’s science mission, Insight is worth getting up early to watch for several reasons, all of which are interconnected: It’s launching from the West Coast, it’s taking an unusual course, and it’s using an United Launch Alliance Atlas V-401.
The reason for the first two is mostly because of the last one. Insight was originally going to launch from Kennedy on the lighter version of the Delta IV. But the Delta wasn’t available and an Atlas was. Meaning that the launcher more than the minimum required power.
That extra power means that rather than sending Insight down to Kennedy where the more southernly position gives the rocket just a little more boost from the Earth’s spin, they can muscle their way up from the West Coast. So they’re going from Vandenberg in … 7 hours, 4 minutes as I write this. Giving folks in California a chance at a real pre-dawn show.
Launch is currently set for 4:05 a.m. PT / 7:05 a.m. ET—those who live within 100 miles of Vandenberg might want to set an alarm.
HBut while Insight is about to take a ride, it’s looking like another much-hoped-for-probe may be grounded for good.
SpaceX and Boeing expected to miss already delayed dates for manned launches.
NASA got some bad news this last week in the form of a fresh GAO report. According to that report, both SpaceX and Boeing are likely to miss their first manned launches, still optimistically scheduled for the end of this year, and neither may actually conduct a manned flight before 2020. This is a big deal, because it leaves Russia holding all the tickets to the ISS. And with increasing tensions with the US and Russia’s fading commercial launch business, they are selling those tickets very dear. Making a deal with Russia to keep crew circulating until Dragon and Starliner can begin making regular trips can be expected to punch into the pocketbook of other NASA projects.
Lunar Resource Prospector grounded.
But one project that already seems to have been shelved is Lunar Resource Prospector. This rover was to be a big in NASA’s planned return to the Moon, with a mission that would have seen the probe searching for water ice and other valuable chemicals near the lunar poles. Those materials could have a large impact on the cost and nature of any lunar station developed in the future. The rover itself was well along in construction and testing, though it wasn’t expected to fly for at least another three years.
But while some of those involved in developing Resource Prospector are still fighting to keep the program alive, NASA now indicates that Prospector doesn’t fit a new plan of using commercial launch services to send two small probes a year to the Moon, beginning in 2019. One of more of these probes may attempt to take over some of the tasks that Resource Prospector was supposed to handle.
The first example of the last Falcon 9 heads for launch this week.
The Falcon 9 has become the most familiar rocket on American launch pads. SpaceX has made 64 Falcon flights in just six years, with the last Falcon 9 carrying the exoplanet explorer TESS away from Kennedy Space Center in April. But not all Falcon 9s are created the same. SpaceX has been continuously tinkering, remodeling, and improving their workhorse rocket. And the rocket that will launch a communication satellite as soon as Monday will be the first example of what SpaceX says is the final iteration of the Falcon 9.
This latest iteration, the “Falcon 9 Block 5” is capable of carrying 22 tons to orbit—30 percent more than earlier Falcon 9’s and enough to put the Falcon 9 into the category of heavy lift vehicles, if the Falcon Heavy wasn’t already in the SpaceX stable. It’s also designed to be even more reusable, with SpaceX hoping to get at least ten flights out of each booster. That means even lower costs for SpaceX, and likely for customers who fly on “seasoned” Falcon 9s.
So even though this flight may look like “just another Falcon 9,” it’s a critical flight for SpaceX. They need this Block 5 Falcon to perform well, so they can pull back the design and engineering team that’s been working on the Falcon 9 and move them over to the BFR team. Issues with the Block 5 would likely put a crimp in plans for seeing a BFR test next year.