Why NASA Is Sending An $850 Million Hammer To Mars

NASA is sending an $850 million lander to Mars. Using a drill to dig deeper into the planet than ever before, Insight will be the first of its kind to study Mars’ interior. This mission will help us learn more about the origins of our solar system.

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#NASA #Mars #ScienceInsider

Following is the transcript of the video:

NASA's about to break new ground like never before, by sending a giant drill to Mars. It's the largest drill NASA has ever sent to space, and it will dig deeper into Mars than ever before. The mission? Uncover clues to one of the most outstanding mysteries in our solar system.

NASA's $850 million InSight Lander is the first designed to study the interior structure of Mars. Until now, NASA's landers mainly focused on exploring Mars' surface for signs of potential life. They've touched down near volcanoes, valleys, and canyons. But InSight won't be going anywhere like that, since InSight is not a rover and can't move around. NASA has one shot to land it in the perfect spot, here! Elysium Planitia, sometimes referred to as the biggest parking lot on Mars. It's one of the plainest spots NASA could find and the perfect place for InSight. For one, it's close to the equator, guaranteeing the solar panels that power InSight's instruments will work year-round for its nearly two-year mission. But most importantly, that smooth surface will make it easier for InSight's drill to bore deep into the Martian soil.

The drill works like a motorized nail, hammering itself into the ground. Over the course of 40 days, the drill will reach 16 feet into the planet. That's roughly the length of a car. For comparison, NASA's Curiosity Rover only dug about half an inch deep. That's the length of an aspirin pill. As InSight digs, it will occasionally shoot out bursts of heat. By calculating how quickly that heat warms the ground around it, InSight can measure the chemical makeup of the soil. But InSight's drill pulls double duty. As it hammers away, it also sends vibrations through the ground, which are sensitive to different layers that might be hiding under the surface. For example, if Mars has underground lava flows, those vibrations will find them. But this only gives NASA clues to the shallower layers of Mars. To understand the deep inner core, InSight has another tool that will measure how much Mars wobbles on its axis. It works similar to an egg. If you spin an uncooked egg, the liquid yolk will slosh around making the egg wobble. But if the inside is cooked, there's less wobble. Similarly, how much Mars wobbles can tell us whether its core is molten liquid or solid metal.

And all these clues can help scientists solve a bigger mystery of how rocky planets like Mars and Earth formed in the first place. By studying the interior of Mars, scientists can get a better grasp on how Mars has evolved over billions of years from a warm, wet world to the desolate landscape it is today. But there's an even bigger objective on the horizon. Ultimately, the more we know about our own solar system, the better we get at searching for other planets beyond our solar system that may have the potential to harbor life.

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Why NASA Is Sending An $850 Million Hammer To Mars

[Dantick]

16 feet, that so disappointing, just send a guy with shovel please

[exoplanets]

Nice. I hope they send another robot to drill into Europa's ice.

[dguaracha]

If only this had the military's budget

[InvestingHustler]

All the resources we have on our planet ! Now imagine how much resources we can find in our galaxy or universe . That’s why

[portalj]

And then the drill ends up finding a rock after an inch of digging.

[honests]

I find things like these so interesting it makes me happy to see us evolving, one day we'll have life on mars hopefully.

[physicallyawesome]

Talks about the solar system- shows a nebula light years away.

[peterfrancis]

NASA: we found oil on Mars

USA: Mars need more freedom and democracy

[alexsiemers]

To everyone in the comments complaining about this being a waste of money:

Keep in mind that the annual US welfare budget is about $1.3 trillion, meaning that 6 hours of welfare spending is worth more than this spacecraft.

[Vienna]

Havent been this hyped since the Pluto mission

[treebranche]

Them martians finna steal the robot and use it to make a rover to explore earth

[bbshapeepee]

If only I could use $850 Million to build a dream PC

[harrylaflare]

16 feet. Just send a guy with a shovel lmao

[dr.ofdubiouswisdom]

NASA projects are awesome & I can easily back them...but this one however seems too dicey with very limited scope, no mobility, just slow data return off one fixed umbilical cord gadget.

[mhkl]

3 views and 4 comments

Nasa are you sure that this drill wont error?

[TCKID]

If they find oil it will be a huge outbreak because that means at some point something organic lived on mars

[cryzen]

wow unbelievable technology salute to all sciencetist that working hard to search new life

[fernschannel.]

$850 million just to find out if the core is liquid or solid?? More like looking for petroleum, diamond and gold.

[rosewhite---]

If Mars was ancient and had been getting dust falling on it the dust would be really deep and the dry river beds would be vague and covered up.
The details are all sharp and the craters are all shallow - Craters with central peaks were made by fluffy ice balls duringThe Flood.

[zeroc]

If they could actually find a valuable resource then maybe those greedy pigs would finally stop wasting so much resources on military and allocate them in science instead.