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<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0lwFLPiZEE">Lockheed Martin/YouTube</a></span></p><p class="caption">An animation of NASA's InSight probe attempting to land on the surface of Mars.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul class="summary-list"><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/nasa-insight-lander" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NASA's Insight lander</a> has <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-insight-mars-probe-landing-successful-science-mission-2018-11">landed safely</a>. The robot will soon start beaming back information about <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-insight-mars-probe-mission-landing-goals-2018-11">quakes and wobbles on Mars</a>.</li><li>Mars doesn't have tectonic plates like Earth, but learning more about how volatile the planet may be could help scientists better understand how Earth developed to sustain life.</li><li>A former NASA chief says scientists are "drooling" for new data about the interior of Mars.</li></ul><p>InSight is on the ground. NASA just dropped an <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-insight-lander-2018-3" target="_blank" rel="noopener">SUV-sized quake-hunting laboratory</a> on Mars - the US space agency's eighth successful landing on the red planet.</p><p>The new solar-powered lander doesn't move. It doesn't record videos. And of InSight's two tiny cameras, one points straight down at the red dust.</p><p>But that doesn't mean it's a boring mission.</p><p>"All of our past missions have really been surface missions that have characterized the surface, the geology, the astrobiology of the surface," NASA's former chief technologist Robert Braun told Business Insider, days before the lander touched down. "InSight's a very different mission in the sense that it is peering into the past by studying, really, the interior of Mars."</p><p>Now a consultant for National Geographic's Mars series, Braun helped develop all of NASA's previous Mars missions, including Curiosity - <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mars-curiosity-rover-selfie-dust-storm-2018-6" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the selfie-snapping rover</a> that's roaming the Martian surface today. He said this new lander could help scientists find clues about what makes life on rocky planets possible.</p><p>"There's a whole group of scientists - a very large group of scientists - that are basically drooling to get more information about the interior of Mars," he said.</p><p>One big question those researchers want to answer: Is Mars still a dynamic place with quaking rumblings like our own earthquakes?</p><p>Four billion years ago, Earth wasn't so different from Mars or the other crusty globes of the inner solar system: Mercury and Venus. Then something happened that made Earth a nice place to live.</p><p>"Our measurements will help us turn back the clock and understand what produced a verdant Earth but a desolate Mars," Bruce Banerdt, InSight's principal investigator, said <a href="https://mars.nasa.gov/news/8388/what-two-planetary-siblings-can-teach-us-about-life/?site=insight" target="_blank" rel="noopener">in a recent NASA blog post</a>.</p><p><span>Braun described the mission in similar terms. </span></p><p><span>"We can't investigate the Earth's early history anymore because of all the changes of the Earth," he said. "You know, water, wind, tectonic plates, have all eroded the very early history of the Earth. But at Mars, we can still learn about that period in our solar system's formation and in our planet's formation."</span></p><p>The movement of tectonic plates is of the processes scientists point to as key for the emergence of life on Earth. The continents and oceans sit on top of these plates, and tectonic activity can release life-sustaining materials like water, carbon dioxide, and methane that create a breeding ground for life. <span>   </span></p><p><span>Mars doesn't have such plates, but that doesn't mean the planet is shake-free. So InSight is designed to sense and monitor Mars' version of quakes. </span></p><p><em><strong>Read More</strong>: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-insight-lander-2018-3" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NASA just dropped a solar-powered lander onto Mars - here's what InSight will do on the red planet</a></em></p><p>That data will be immensely valuable to Earth scientists, and it could also one day aid in the quest to put humans on Mars.</p><p>"Understanding the interior of the planet, and what the resources are throughout the interior of the planet, would be important if you were going to one day have a human settlement there," Braun said.</p><p>It will take InSight months to fully set itself up as a research base. But just moments after landing, it sent back a first glimpse of its new home:</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGD_YF64Nwk">NASA JPL/YouTube</a></span></p><p class="caption">The first photo that NASA's InSight Mars lander sent back to Earth on November 26, 2018.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Mission control couldn't have been more thrilled to see the dusty photo.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGD_YF64Nwk">NASA JPL/YouTube</a></span></p><p class="caption">Scientists and engineers inside mission control at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory celebrate the landing of the InSight Mars probe.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/microbes-alien-life-on-venus-in-mysterious-clouds-2018-5">Forget Mars, there could be life on Venus</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

NASA's InSight lander may not be as sexy as a Mars rover, but here's why the mission matters for Earthlings

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0lwFLPiZEE">Lockheed Martin/YouTube</a></span></p><p class="caption">An illustration of NASA's InSight probe on the surface of Mars.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul class="summary-list"><li><strong>NASA just successfully landed its <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/nasa-insight-lander" target="_blank" rel="noopener">InSight robot</a> on the surface of Mars.</strong></li><li><strong>InSight won't move around <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/mars" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mars</a>, but it will be the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-insight-mars-probe-mission-landing-goals-2018-11">first mission to take the red planet's temperature</a>.</strong></li><li><strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/nasa" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NASA</a> will also <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-insight-lander-2018-3">listen for Mars quakes</a> caused by meteorite impacts and tectonic movements. The vibrations could help decipher the interior structure of the planet.</strong></li><li><strong>Scientists hope InSight will help answer questions about how rocky planets become habitable (like Earth), or inhospitable (like Mars).</strong></li></ul><p>While online shoppers celebrated Cyber Monday deals, NASA researchers cheered the successful landing of a new probe on Mars.</p><p>The roughly $830 million mission is called <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-insight-lander-2018-3">InSight</a> - short for "Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport."</p><p>NASA <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/photos-video-show-blast-off-as-nasa-insight-probe-launches-to-mars-2018-5">rocketed</a> its 789-pound robot toward Mars on May 5, along with two briefcase-size satellites called MarsCubeOne that <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/planet-mars-image-nasa-marco-cubesat-2018-10">trailed the spacecraft</a> to help record and relay crucial landing data.</p><p>InSight completed a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-insight-mars-mission-landing-when-what-time-2018-11">treacherous 14-minute-long descent</a> to the Martian surface around 2:54 p.m. ET on Monday, then confirmed its safe arrival with a beep - a moment that sent scientists and engineers jumping and screaming for joy in mission control at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.</p><p>Today's Mars landing was the first since the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nuclear-powered-spacecraft-nasa-history-2017-3">nuclear-powered</a> Curiosity rover reached the red planet's surface more than six years ago.</p><p><em><strong>Read more</strong>: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mars-facts-statistics-2017-5">13 incredible facts you probably didn't know about Mars</a></em></p><p>Now that NASA has a new high-tech robot on the Martian surface, planetary scientists are eager to put InSight to work. But they'll have to wait until Monday night to know for sure that InSight is healthy.</p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"We're going to kick up a lot of dust when we land, and we need to let that dust settle before we want to unfurl our solar arrays," <a href="https://mars.nasa.gov/people/info.cfm?id=22920">Tom Hoffman</a>, the InSight mission's payload manager, said during a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGD_YF64Nwk">live broadcast</a> by NASA. "We're 100% solar-powered, so it's very important that we get those out."</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">NASA expects to confirm the solar panels are deployed around 8:30 p.m. EST. Assuming all goes well, the spacecraft will be poised to probe Mars over the next two Earth years in ways researchers had only dreamed about.</span></p><p>"InSight's a very different mission in the sense that it is peering into the past by studying, really, the interior of Mars," <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/braun_bio.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Robert Braun</a>, NASA's former chief technologist and a technical consultant for National Geographic's "Mars" series, previously told Business Insider. "In doing so, we're going to learn about Mars, but also about the early history of the Earth."</p><p>Here's what NASA hopes to discover with InSight now that the probe has arrived safely.</p><h2>Why NASA landed InSight on a flat Martian plain</h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA22743">NASA/JPL-Caltech</a></span></p><p class="caption">A simulation of Elysium Planitia on Mars.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>InSight landed on Mars at a place known as <a href="https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/timeline/prelaunch/landing-site-selection/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Elysium Planitia</a>. It's a relatively flat region that's free of boulders, craters, and other potentially mission-ending obstacles.</p><p>The location might seem boring - certainly compared to the ancient mountain that Curiosity is now climbing - but researchers say InSight is well positioned to pull off an unprecedented scientific mission.</p><p>Elysium Planitia sits just north of Martian equator, where the sun's rays are relatively strong year-round. Using two circular solar panels to capture that free energy, InSight could operate for two Earth years (or one Martian year).</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/timeline/prelaunch/landing-site-selection/">NASA; Business Insider</a></span></p><p class="caption">NASA landed its InSight robot at Elysium Planitia near the Martian equator.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>That's a huge difference from InSight's nearly identical predecessor mission, the Phoenix Mars Lander.</p><p>Phoenix landed in 2008 and dug for water ice near Mars' north pole. But the robot died after a few months because sunlight was too feeble to warm its electronics.</p><p>InSight is equipped with different scientific instruments from Phoenix, though, and researchers think the soil at Elysium Planitia will be loose enough to allow the robot to pound a heat probe deep into the ground.</p><p>This will help InSight perform the first-ever "<a href="https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/mission/science/overview/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">checkup</a>" of the 4.6-billion-year-old planet.</p><p>"InSight's goal is to study the interior of Mars and take the planet's vital signs, its pulse, and temperature," NASA says on its mission <a href="https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/timeline/landing/summary/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">website</a>. "To look deep into Mars, the lander must be at a place where it can stay still and quiet for its entire mission. That's why scientists chose Elysium Planitia as InSight's home."</p><h2>Probing the ancient secrets of Mars - and Earth, too</h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://images.nasa.gov/details-PIA16078.html">NASA/JPL</a></span></p><p class="caption">A cutaway illustration showing what scientists think the interior of Mars might look like.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>The InSight mission's ultimate goal is to figure out how Mars formed and what happened to the planet since then. Scientists know that Mars once generated an atmosphere-protecting magnetic dynamo, as Earth still does today. But the Martian core's dynamo eventually shut down and the planet's protective shield faded, which allowed the sun to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-mars-lost-water-atmosphere-solar-wind-2015-11">blow away Mars' atmosphere</a> and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mars-ocean-mega-tsunami-surface-2016-5">oceans of water</a>.</p><p>Now that InSight is powered up and in touch with Earth, it will use its robotic arm to pluck a dome-shaped instrument off of its landing platform and gently place it on the Martian surface. The dome contains six sensitive vibration-detection devices called seismometers.</p><p>Seismometers on Earth and the moon (<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/apollo-moon-landing-photos-nasa-1969-2018-7">Apollo astronauts deployed some on the lunar surface</a>) have recorded earthquakes and moon quakes, which have helped scientists figure out the internal structure of those rocky worlds. On Mars, NASA researchers hope to accomplish a similar feat: listening for Mars quakes.</p><p>Whenever a meteorite strikes Mars, or there's a landslide, or a big blob of magma suddenly shifts, or there's tectonic movement, InSight's seismometer should detect such vibrations. The devices can even record seismic activity from all the way across the planet.</p><p>Over time, data about Mars quakes could reveal hitherto unknown information about the internal structure of the planet.</p><p>The other device InSight will deploy is a <a href="https://theoatmeal.com/comics/insight" target="_blank" rel="noopener">mole-like</a> heat probe. The 6.5-lb probe will <a href="https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/spacecraft/instruments/hp3/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">hammer itself</a> into the soil, stopping every so often to heat up. An onboard sensor will then detect how long it takes that warmth to dissipate.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>NASA/JPL-Caltech</span></p><p class="caption">An artist illustration of the InSight lander on Mars.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>The probe is expected to dig 16 feet down - far deeper than any previous Mars mission has ever reached with scoops, shovels, or drills.</p><p>"When we get down that deep, we'll get away from all of the temperature variations of the surface," Suzanne Smrekar, the mission's deputy principle investigator, said during a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bz4f7zlGETI" target="_blank" rel="noopener">press briefing</a> in October. "That tells us about the heat coming out of the planet - that energy that's available for driving geologic activity."</p><p>The data will help Smrekar and others calculate how quickly energy in Mars' core can escape - the equivalent of taking the planet's temperature.</p><p>Such warmth is left over from Mars' formation some 4.6 billion years ago, though it also comes from the decay of radioactive elements. These measurements are critical for decoding the red planet's past, as well as that of Earth's and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-space-telescope-tess-searches-for-alien-planets-2018-8">other rocky planets</a>. That's because heat flow from the core can help drive plate tectonics, a factor believed to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/goldilocks-exoplanet-habitability-internal-heat-2016-8">separate habitable worlds from dead ones</a>.</p><p>Researchers can also use the data to figure out whether underground <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/martian-oasis-water-extraterrestrial-life-2017-5">pools of warm water</a> could exist on Mars. Such pools, if present, may support <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/martian-oasis-water-extraterrestrial-life-2017-5">microbial alien life</a> (and provide <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/astronaut-plants-air-food-water-life-support-2018-5">rich targets</a> for future astronaut missions).</p><p>Back on the surface, InSight will also use a sensitive radio <keyword id="41551" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="100" keywordseo="science">science</keyword> experiment to see how subtly Mars wobbles during its orbit around the sun, which takes about two Earth years. This data should tell researchers what is going on in the deepest parts of the planet's core.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://images.nasa.gov/details-NHQ201810310005.html">NASA/Bill Ingalls</a></span></p><p class="caption">The lead scientist on the InSight mission to Mars, Bruce Banerdt, speaks during a press conference on October 31, 2018.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>In probing Mars' history, scientists think we're bound to learn about our own planet's origins.</p><p>"Earth ... is a big planet that holds a lot of heat, a lot of energy, and it's been very geologically active over its entire history. So most of the record of the early processes that formed the Earth have been erased," <a href="https://mars.nasa.gov/people/info.cfm?id=22920" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tom Hoffman</a>, the InSight mission's payload manager, said during NASA's October press briefing. "We'd like to have a planet that's just a little bit calmer and that can retain that that evidence."</p><p>This makes sedate Mars, which is similar to Earth but has remained almost frozen in time, the perfect place to go looking.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-mars-landing-super-hard-insight-curiosity-mars2020-2018-11">Why Mars is the hardest planet to land on in our solar system</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

NASA's new Mars mission just landed - and it could reveal why Earth is habitable but the red planet is not

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table full"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_261.html">NASA</a></span></p></div><p></p></div></div>WASHINGTON, D.C. - In sharp contrast to the cynical outlook that politicians, lobbyists, and reporters generally have about space travel in this city, the tone inside the <a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/future-is-here/?no-ist">Smithsonian's Future Is Here Festival</a> on April 24 was unabashedly optimistic.</p><p>There, NASA officials shared their detailed plans to land humans on Mars as soon as 15 years from now.</p><p>The space agency has mulled launching a crewed Mars mission for decades. In fact, President <a href="http://www.techinsider.io/john-f-kennedy-wanted-mars-instead-moon-2016-3">Kennedy originally wanted astronauts to visit the Red Planet</a> instead of the moon. So today it feels like we may never reach Mars, as many science fiction stories have teased and NASA has failed to deliver.</p><p>But the space agency seems serious this time. President <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/news/media/trans/obama_ksc_trans.html">Obama challenged NASA</a> to get astronauts to Mars in the 2030s. And while other presidents have done the same since the Apollo missions returned from the moon, NASA says that it's finally ready for its Mars shot.</p><p>"We're closer than we've ever been to humans stepping on Mars," NASA's deputy administrator, <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/newman_bio.html">Dava Newman</a>, said at the conference.</p><p>NASA released its 36-page "<a href="http://www.techinsider.io/nasa-journey-to-mars-plan-2015-10">Journey to Mars</a>" report in <a href="http://www.techinsider.io/latest-nasa-report-on-journey-to-mars-2015-10">October 2015</a> to outline broad goals, but its <a href="http://www.techinsider.io/nasa-journey-to-mars-plan-2015-10">lack of clear deadlines</a> generated fierce opposition.</p><p>"This sounds good, but it is actually a journey to nowhere until we have that budget and we have the schedule and we have the deadlines," Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) said during a congressional <a href="https://science.house.gov/news/press-releases/hearing-examines-impact-president-s-budget-deep-space-exploration">hearing</a> after the report was released.</p><p>Newman and other NASA administrators shared new details at the Smithsonian conference, though, filling in some of the blanks to respond to Smith's and others' criticisms.</p><p>Here's how the agency plans to get humans on Mars within our lifetimes.</p><h2>The plan</h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.nasa.gov/content/nasas-orion-flight-test-and-the-journey-to-mars">NASA</a></span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>NASA and <a href="http://www.lockheedmartin.com/us/ssc/orion-eft1.html">Lockheed Martin</a> have already built the spacecraft that will take humans to Mars, called <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/exploration/systems/orion/about/index.html">Orion</a>. But it has to go through a few more tests before that happens.</p><p>All of the missions in the next two decades are building up to be able to land humans on Mars in the 2030s.</p><p>Newman said the journey is divided into three phases: Earth-dependent, proving ground, and Earth-independent.</p><h3>Earth-dependent (today)</h3><p>NASA will continue to test the effects of space on the human body and conduct experiments aboard the International Space Station (ISS).</p><p>Astronaut <a href="http://www.techinsider.io/scott-kelly-lands-safely-after-year-in-space-2016-3">Scott Kelly's year in space</a> was a big part of this phase, since they'll compare what he went through with his twin brother who stayed on the ground.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table full"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.nasa.gov/exploration/systems/orion/gallery/index.html?id=351901">NASA</a></span></p><p class="caption">The Orion spacecraft awaits liftoff during its 2014 flight test aboard a Delta IV rocket.</p></div><p></p></div></div>In 2018, <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/feature/the-ins-and-outs-of-nasa-s-first-launch-of-sls-and-orion">NASA plans to launch Orion</a> into orbit atop a new Statue of Liberty-size rocket, called the Space Launch System (SLS). The goal is to see if SLS works and how well Orion holds up to radiation in space. The spacecraft will be uncrewed and the mission will last about three weeks.</p><p>The space agency <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/files/JSC_OrionEFT-1_PressKit_accessible.pdf">already tested Orion in a shorter mission</a> in 2014, which was a success, but this next mission will go near the Moon and back, subjecting the spacecraft to harsher conditions.</p><h3>Proving ground (2020s)</h3><p>The first crewed Orion mission is <a href="http://www.space.com/30560-nasa-orion-space-capsule-crewed-launch-delay.html">scheduled for 2023</a>, when four astronauts will get test the spacecraft themselves.</p><p>To give them something important to do, NASA is launching an <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/osiris-rex/about">uncrewed mission called OSIRIS-REx to a nearby asteroid</a>. The spacecraft should arrive and grab a sample by 2018, then come back near Earth by 2023 so the astronauts can go study the rock. This mission will help NASA figure out how humans and robots can work together on deep space missions like they'll have to on Mars, Newman said.</p><p>During the 2020s, NASA also plans to test deep space habitats, possibly on the moon, to experiment with how they'll have to design habitats for the surface of Mars.</p><p>And the agency plans to retire the ISS in <a href="https://oig.nasa.gov/audits/reports/FY14/IG-14-031.pdf">2024</a>, Newman said, ending over two decades of unprecedented research and global collaboration. ("Retire" sounds nice, but it likely means <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/pdf/578543main_asap_eol_plan_2010_101020.pdf">crashing the space station into the ocean</a>.)</p><p>It's around this time - the mid-2020s - when NASA's plans start to get a little fuzzier and less concrete.</p><h3>Earth-independent (2030s)</h3><p>To the critics' lament, plans get even more speculative in the 2030s.</p><p>NASA wants to launch a crewed, round-trip mission to Mars aboard Orion - but that's about all the details the agency has confirmed so far.</p><p>Newman emphasized the importance of "round-trip:" They're going to bring the astronauts back to Earth. This mission will take three years to complete, and will hopefully be the first of many before we set up a permanent colony on Mars.</p><p>But NASA has a lot to figure out before we get to that point.</p><h2>The challenges</h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table full"><div><div class="image"></div></div></div></p><h3>Keeping astronauts safe</h3><p>When humans leave the protective shielding that Earth provides, we are highly susceptible to the dangers of space. We evolved on Earth, after all - we're not built for interplanetary travel.</p><p>One of the biggest concerns NASA has with sending astronauts on deep space mission is the dose of radiation they'll receive out there.</p><p>High energy particles from the sun, called coronal mass ejections, and those from outside the solar system, called cosmic rays, can bombard spacecraft with powerful radiation. In turn, this can increase the risk of cancer for the astronauts inside.</p><p>NASA currently <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/files/1_NAC_HEO_SMD_Committee_Mars_Radiation_Intro_2015April7_Final_TAGGED.pdf">sets a limit for the increase in risk</a> that astronauts would develop and die from cancer, and our current technology wouldn't be able to keep astronauts below that dose on a round-trip to Mars. Our spacecraft will need better shielding, or we'll have to develop drugs to keep this risk at bay, or both.</p><p>But an increased cancer risk is just one of the many health problems that can happen in space. <a href="http://www.techinsider.io/heres-what-happens-to-your-body-in-space-2016-3">Prolonged space travel can</a> also make humans lose bone density and muscle mass, and it may affect their eyesight. Mental health could also <a href="http://www.popularmechanics.com/space/moon-mars/a8591/5-things-russias-fake-mars-mission-says-about-space-travel-and-office-life-14954479/">be an issue</a> in a confined spacecraft.</p><p>The technical challenges of launching and landing rockets on Mars are one thing - making sure the astronauts stay healthy enough to complete their mission and come home is a whole other.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container full"><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://appel.nasa.gov/2012/01/11/building-the-future-spacesuit/">NASA</a></span></p><p class="caption">Dava Newman models the spacesuit she designed for astronauts to use on the surface of Mars.</p></div><p></p></div></p><h3>Securing money</h3><p>Convincing Congress to fund far-off missions that lack concrete deadlines is always a struggle, but it's especially tough when that money is for space travel.</p><p>NASA has experienced its share of <a href="http://spacenews.com/nasa-cuts-funds-for-mars-landing-technology-work/">budget cuts</a> in recent years, and the future of funding - particularly with the 2016 election looming - is unclear.</p><p>Some NASA and space experts say we could put humans on Mars <a href="http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/02/space-experts-warn-congress-that-nasas-journey-to-mars-is-illusory/">within existing budgets</a>. But to truly make this ambitious plan a reality, the agency will <a href="http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2726/1">likely need an influx of cash</a>, particularly in the years when astronauts actually reach the Red Planet.</p><p>NASA could also partner with ambitious companies planning their own Mars landings, <a href="http://www.techinsider.io/nasa-spacex-mars-2018-mission-2016-4">like SpaceX</a>. The agency is <a href="http://www.techinsider.io/nasa-has-always-contracted-companies-like-spacex-2016-4">increasingly working with industry</a> in a way that is hugely beneficial to both parties, so this could be an economical option.</p><p>Like many basic science endeavors, we don't yet know what knowledge we can gain by going to Mars. Did we foresee all the developments in flight systems, communications, and computers that the moon landings, or the shuttle missions, were going to yield? Of course not.</p><p>Giving NASA money always takes a bit of faith. We don't know what exploring the universe can teach us.</p><p>"We're following our curiosity. ... We don't know where it will take us, but it will bring change, and that itself keeps us alive," NASA engineer <a href="https://twitter.com/steltzner?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor">Adam Steltzner</a> said at the conference, who led the team that developed the landing system for the Mars Curiosity rover. "The curiosity is in our genes."</p><h2>The inspiration</h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table full"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/evolution-of-a-martian_np-2015-09-648-larc.pdf">NASA</a></span></p><p class="caption">First rovers, then humans.</p></div><p></p></div></div>Former NASA astronaut <a href="http://www.lockheedmartin.com/us/news/features/2015/astronauts-space-1215.html">Tony Antonelli</a> has asked schoolchildren if they think we're going to land humans on Mars soon. To them, it's not a question - it's a given.</p><p>Kids may be the only ones who are as optimistic about these missions as NASA administrators are. They know we'll get "boots on the ground" on Mars within their lifetimes. Some of them might even be the astronauts who make it there.</p><p>The rest of the general public is another story. Importantly for NASA, they're the ones who need convincing to drive that final push to get us there, said Antonelli, who's now the chief technologist of exploration systems for Lockheed Martin's civil line of space systems.</p><p>"We will not go until the American people and the international community are ready and decide that it is a priority," he told Tech Insider. "I really think what we're missing is a sense of urgency, a sense of purpose, and just pushing out and doing it."</p><p>Little kids know it will happen. NASA and its partners are ready to go. Now the public has to get on board to convince their representatives in Washington, too.</p><p>"We have nearly enough information to be able to support humans going to Mars," NASA's Planetary Science Director <a href="http://science.nasa.gov/about-us/organization-and-leadership/division-bios/dr-jim-green/">Jim Green</a> said at the festival. "It's not a matter of if. It's a matter of when."</p><p>Are you ready?</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-most-powerful-rocket-mars-2016-2">This is NASA's most powerful rocket in history-and it's going to Mars</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="s4M3JtMDE6ABi5yWTH7EGeryUe4BIiuP" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

This is NASA's audacious plan to land humans on Mars within your lifetime

<p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><ul><li><strong>Most places in the solar system can't be reached without nuclear energy.</strong></li><li><strong>NASA uses plutonium-238 forged during the Cold War to power its most ambitious missions.</strong></li><li><strong>NASA is running low on the material, but the Department of Energy is making more.</strong></li><li><strong>However, a government report suggests production challenges might impact NASA's future nuclear-powered missions.</strong></li></ul><p>Classroom models lie - our solar system isn't a bunch of bright, closely nestled orbs.</p><p>Instead, other planets are separated from Earth by unfathomable distances - and are often too cold, dim, and remote for any spacecraft to explore on solar power alone.</p><p>The good news is that we have plutonium-238: a radioisotope (or radioactive form of an element) whose heat can be converted into electricity. When placed inside devices called radioisotope power sources (RPS), plutonium-238 can keep NASA's <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/nuclear-powered-spacecraft-nasa-history-2017-3">most epic missions going for decades</a>.</p><p>The problem is that most plutonium-238 was forged during the Cold War, and mission-ready material may be exhausted within eight years, according to a <a href="http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-17-673">Government Accountability Office report</a> released Wednesday.</p><p>The Department of Energy is working to&#xa0;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/plutonium-238-produced-nasa-spacecraft-2015-12">create&#xa0;more plutonium</a> for NASA, but the report said problems&#xa0;with that program "may be jeopardizing NASA's ability to use RPS as a power source for future missions."</p><p>If we hit a plutonium bottleneck,&#xa0;future knowledge about the solar system may hang in the balance.</p><h2>Space exploration's red-hot radioactive heart</h2><p>Radioisotopes are powerful all-in-one fuel sources.&#xa0;As they&#xa0;decay and transform into new elements, they release impressive amounts of energy. That heat can warm fragile robotic circuits and run power sources that are compact,&#xa0;lightweight, and&#xa0;capable of&#xa0;providing electricity for decades.</p><p>But of the roughly 2,900 types of radioisotopes known to humankind, only 22 are capable of powering a deep-space probe, according to <a href="https://www.nap.edu/catalog/12653/radioisotope-power-systems-an-imperative-for-maintaining-us-leadership-in">a 2009 study</a> by the National Academies of <keyword id="41551" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="100" keywordseo="science">Science</keyword>. And 21 of those pose too many challenges to be of practical use, since many are too expensive, emit too much dangerous radiation to work with, or lack enough heat output.</p><p>The only one that checks all of NASA's boxes is plutonium-238. And unlike its Pu-239 sister isotope, Pu-238 can't be made into <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/north-korea-hydrogen-bomb-test-evidence-2017-9">explosive nuclear bombs</a>.</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>"It's like a magic isotope. It's just right," Jim Adams, NASA's deputy chief technologist, previously told <a href="https://www.wired.com/2013/09/plutonium-238-problem/">told Wired</a>.<p>Part of Pu-238's secret is that its half-life - the time it takes for half of any given amount to decay&#xa0;- is 87.7 years. That means a century from now, any amount will give off a little less than half the heat it does today. That's important because time is a battle in space - it took the Cassini probe seven years to reach Saturn and the New Horizons spacecraft about nine years to reach <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/pluto-subsurface-ocean-2016-12">Pluto</a>.</p><p>Pu-238's long half-life is the reason NASA can still talk to the Voyager probes <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/voyager-probes-mission-history-farthest-movie-2018-08">40 years after they launched</a> and from beyond the solar system.</p><p>Engineers have plenty of other ways to power planetary science probes, including batteries, fuel cells, solar power, and even <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/nuclear-powered-satellites-space-2016-3">nuclear reactors</a>. But study after study champions plutonium-238 as the best choice for a long list of reasons (including its half-life).</p><p>The biggest is the lack of space on rockets. Too much size or weight can make a mission unfeasible, so if a power source is too big or heavy, scientists have to sacrifice a robot's tools and tricks.</p><p>Radiation is a related issue: Many planets and moons whip up powerful electromagnetic fields, which can damage electronics. Solar panels are especially susceptible to this kind of radiation, so when sending probes to risky destinations - like Jupiter's <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/europa-water-jet-hubble-telescope-photos-2016-9">ocean-hiding moon Europa</a> - engineers pack in thick, heavy shielding and backup systems. That enables a robot to stick around a planet or moon for more than a few hours at a time, but it's weight that can't be used on scientific tools or power.</p><p>Pre-charged batteries and fuel cells also don't last long enough for most deep-space missions. Solar panels do last, but they have to be very large when sent far from the sun.</p><p>On Jupiter, for instance, light is about 4% as bright as it is at Earth. This required the unfurled solar panels on NASA's Juno spacecraft to expand to roughly the size of a tennis court. Space is also very cold, and many electronics need to stay above a certain temperature to function.</p><p><a href="https://www.astro.umd.edu/people/jess.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Jessica Sunshine</a>, a space scientist who developed a <a href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2008LPICo1405.8131C" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">comet-hopper mission</a> for NASA, told Business Insider that without plutonium, missions like hers come into question.</p><p>"It's not a matter of 'can you do it better,' but 'can you do it at all,'" she said. "On a comet, operating at crazy distances, you can't land with solar panels the size of an Airbus wing. A radioactive power supply is a totally enabling thing."</p><h2>The plutonium problem</h2><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p>The US government stopped making Pu-238 in 1988. Russia sold some to NASA in the 1990s and 2000s, but it stopped selling around 2009 - most likely because its Cold War-era stockpile ran out.</p><p>So as the space agency planned new plutonium-powered missions and used up its supply, researchers increasingly sounded alarms on Capitol Hill.</p><p>The complexity of producing more Pu-238, hard-to-peg cost estimates, and disagreements within Congress stalled funding for a resupply project for about two decades. As a result, NASA today has about 77 pounds left (though the Department of Defense has a separate stockpile).</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>However, because Pu-238 decays, only about half of&#xa0;NASA's stockpile is still fresh and hot enough&#xa0;for NASA's needs.<p>This is not enough for another <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-cassini-pictures-free-ebook-pdf-2017-9">mission like Cassini</a>, which used more than 50 pounds - yet space scientists hope to send similar spacecraft to explore hidden oceans on moons of Jupiter and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/voyager-mom-linda-spilker-why-nasa-should-go-back-saturn-2017-9">Saturn</a>; revisit Uranus, Neptune, and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/pluto-subsurface-ocean-2016-11">Pluto</a>; and&#xa0;travel to other cold, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/number-dwarf-planets-solar-system-2017-3">mysterious, far-flung destinations</a> for the first time.</p><p>"All of these missions would require nuclear power," Alan Stern, the former head of science at NASA and principal investigator of the New Horizons mission, told Business Insider.</p><p>That's why space scientists celebrated in July 2011 when Congress approved <a href="https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2011/07/using-nuclear-fuel-future-nasa-missions-gets-boost" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">$10 million in new funding</a> to restart Pu-238 production for the first time since the Cold War.</p><p>The DOE manages the plutonium resupply project, since federal regulations prevent NASA from handling the nuclear material. The project's goal is to revitalize the aging plutonium in NASA's stockpile and bulk it up with fresh plutonium.</p><p>By December 2015, the DOE had <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/plutonium-238-produced-nasa-spacecraft-2015-12">created 50 grams of mission-ready plutonium</a> for NASA. That amount has since doubled to about 100 grams (just more than two golf balls' worth of mass), and another 100 grams are expected to come out of reactors this fall.</p><p>"They seem to have figured out the secret recipe," Ralph McNutt, a chief scientist at Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory, told Business Insider.</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><h2>Fits, restarts, and snags</h2><p>Jim Green, the head of NASA's planetary science program, is optimistic about the project, which may soon cost the space agency roughly $20 million per year. The DOE expects to begin producing 2/3 to 1 pound of Pu-238 per year in 2019.</p><p>"I think we're in really good [shape] for the next several decades," Green said during a press conference last month after the destruction of Cassini. "Our plan is to keep a stock of plutonium and not let that be a mission-limiting factor."</p><p>But the production timeline and GAO report suggests it's not so easy.</p><p>NASA asked DOE to make about 3.3 pounds of Pu-238 a year, and DOE&#xa0;pledged to&#xa0;try to achieve full-scale production at that level around 2019 at the earliest. But over the years that early deadline moved to 2021, then 2023, then 2025. The program is supposed to achieve full-scale production by 2026 at the latest - so a seven-year cushion has shrunk to just one year.</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>David Schurr, the deputy director of NASA's planetary science program, told Business Insider via email that these timeline shifts were "normal and expected" and there isn't a risk "that threatens the availability of fuel for the foreseeable future."<p>Technically, the DOE is still within its estimated production range. NASA also has enough plutonium for its car-size <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-nasa-mars-sample-return-mission-2016-12">Mars 2020 rover</a> as well as one of several <a href="https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/2017/05/05/nasa-receives-proposals-for-future-solar-system-mission" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">nuclear-powered mission proposals</a> it may select in 2019 - the only two nuclear-powered mission launches it may launch through 2025.</p><p>However, according to the GAO's new report, which was the centerpiece of <a href="https://science.house.gov/legislation/hearings/subcommittee-space-hearing-powering-exploration-update-radioisotope-production">a congressional hearing</a> on Wednesday, NASA may run out of mission-ready plutonium after that.</p><p>The GAO spent 18 months auditing the plutonium production operation, and identified many snags in the chemistry, workflow, and scalability of the DOE's project. These issues have arisen because the DOE could not simply take the Cold War-era plans, dust off old equipment, rehire retired staff, and get started. The facilities, staff, and process used during that time no longer exist.</p><p>"The reactor is gone now. Disassembled. The cooling tower was torn down in early 90s," McNutt said. "All of that stuff is just gone."</p><p>The recipe is also different. Cold War-era researchers invented a new production process that generates less radioactive waste, but McNutt said no one ever got it working seamlessly, let alone scaled it up.</p><p>"This stuff is so incredibly complicated. It's tough. Intrinsically difficult," McNutt said. He noted during Wednesday's congressional hearing that it took roughly $7 billion of research over 60 years to develop the fuel and power supplies that NASA uses today.</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><h2>What it takes to produce Pu-238</h2><p>To forge 3.3 pounds of plutonium a year, the DOE has had to assemble a Rube Goldberg machine out of three facilities spread around the country.</p><p>In brief, the process goes like this: Neptunium-237 (another Cold War-era byproduct, and the key starter material to make Pu-238) is shipped from Idaho National Laboratory to Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, where it's formed into reactor-ready targets.</p><p>Those targets are irradiated for months, removed, and then left to radioactively cool, a process that takes about a year. Technicians then dissolve the targets, purify a small amount of fresh Pu-238, and contain the waste. Leftover neptunium is crafted into new targets, some of which gets shipped back to Idaho.</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>Once made, fresh plutonium is sent to Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, where it's stored and inserted into safety devices that contain the plutonium within a radioisotope power source. Those devices are then sent back to Idaho for assembly into power sources for NASA.<p>The whole program costs NASA about $77 million for a power supply with 10.6 pounds of plutonium, according to the GAO report. The Curiosity rover on Mars uses one such power supply, though future missions may use up to three. (NASA gets a deep discount when several power supplies are ordered at a time.)</p><p>If there's any hiccup in the pipeline, McNutt compared the consequences to "a case where someone just sneezes and everyone gets a pneumonia."</p><p>According to the GAO report, the DOE is "still in the experimental stage" with Pu-238 production and hasn't mastered the chemistry. It also said that meeting full-scale production will require making neptunium targets five times faster (a robotic fabricator that's supposed to debut later this year could help with that). DOE may also need a 38-50% larger staff of technicians, each of whom takes about two years to train.</p><p><br>Furthermore, the report states the DOE isn't tracking systemic risks that may threaten the department's Pu-238 production goals, nor communicating those to NASA. For example, the project competes for work space in a facility related to DOE's primary responsibility - maintaining the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/nuclear-weapons-stockpiles-world-map-2017-8">US nuclear weapons arsenal</a> - so the project might have to pause unless a new location is arranged.</br></p><p>The DOE concurred with the report's conclusions and committed to crafting a new plan by September 2018.</p><p>"Generically, without clear plans and good risk evaluations, you can be surprised," Schurr told Business Insider in an email.</p><p>McNutt chalks up most of these problems to tight funding, since much of the work is novel.</p><p>"I think the people that are managing this are really between a rock and a hard place," he said. "Until we're actually up and running at a level of full-scale production, I don't think we're really going to know what all of this is going to cost."</p><p>But he's still optimistic, especially since a more daunting plutonium shortage loomed on the horizon before 2009.</p><p>"We did literally think we were close to a going-out-of-business sale, that this was close to being shut down. At least now, we're up and running" he said, adding, "I always tell people, 'if you're into instant gratification, don't get into the space business.'"</p><div><div style="position:relative;padding-bottom:54%"></div></div><div><div style="position:relative;padding-bottom:54%"></div></div>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/molten-salt-reactor-technology-power-world-millions-years-2016-12">This Cold War-era technology could safely power the world for millions of years</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

NASA's future missions to Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and beyond could hit a nuclear roadblock within the next decade

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0lwFLPiZEE">Lockheed Martin/YouTube</a></span></p><p class="caption">An illustration of NASA's InSight probe attempting to land on the surface of Mars</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul class="summary-list"><li><strong>NASA will try to land its <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/nasa-insight-lander" target="_blank" rel="noopener">InSight probe</a> on the surface of the red planet around 3 p.m. ET on Monday.</strong></li><li><strong>The robotic lander must survive "seven minutes of terror" before touching down and beginning a series of unprecedented scientific firsts.</strong></li><li><strong>InSight won't move around <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/mars" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mars</a>, but it could be the first mission to measure the "vital signs" of the planet and decode its internal structure.</strong></li><li><strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/nasa" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NASA</a> will also listen for "marsquakes" caused by meteorite impacts and tectonic movements, which could reveal the interior structure of the 4.6-billion-year-old world.</strong></li></ul><p>On Cyber Monday, while online shoppers hunt for deals, NASA will be trying to stick its first landing of a robot on the surface of Mars in six years.</p><p>The roughly $830-million mission is called <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-insight-lander-2018-3">InSight</a>, which is short for "Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport."</p><p>NASA <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/photos-video-show-blast-off-as-nasa-insight-probe-launches-to-mars-2018-5">rocketed</a> the InSight probe toward the red planet on May 5. The lander, which weighs about 789 lbs, is expected to complete a risky descent sequence around 3 p.m. ET on Monday, November 26. Part of that process is known as the "seven minutes of terror."</p><p>If all goes well, the golf-cart-size lander will be the first robot to touch down on Martian soil since NASA's <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nuclear-powered-spacecraft-nasa-history-2017-3">nuclear-powered</a> Curiosity rover, which landed there in August 2012.</p><p><em><strong>Read more</strong>: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mars-facts-statistics-2017-5">13 incredible facts you probably didn't know about the red planet</a></em></p><p>Scientists hope that InSight's two-year mission will probe Mars in ways they've only dreamed of until now.</p><p>"All of our past missions have really been surface missions," <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/braun_bio.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Robert Braun</a>, NASA's former chief technologist, told Business Insider. "InSight's a very different mission in the sense that it is peering into the past by studying, really, the interior of Mars. In doing so, we're going to learn about Mars, but also about the early history of the Earth."</p><p>First, however, InSight will have to get safely to the surface.</p><h2>How InSight might survive '7 minutes of terror'</h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://images.nasa.gov/details-PIA22100.html">NASA/JPL-Caltech</a></span></p><p class="caption">An illustration of NASA's InSight Mars probe in the "seven minutes of terror" phase of its descent to the Martian surface.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Getting to Mars is relatively easy.</p><p>That's because modern rockets are safer and more reliable to launch than ever before. In fact, the vehicle that sent InSight toward Mars - an Atlas V rocket built by United Launch Alliance - has had only one partial failure since its debut in 2002.</p><p>Landing on the red planet, however, is one of the most challenging tasks an aerospace engineer can accomplish. About a third of robots sent there never make it.</p><p>"Although we've done it before, landing on Mars is hard, and this mission is no different," Rob Manning, the chief engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDSbUpmRksI" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a video</a>. "It takes thousands of steps to go from the top of the atmosphere to the surface, and each one of them has to work perfectly."</p><p>The <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mars-facts-statistics-2017-5">Martian atmosphere is about 1% as thick as Earth's</a>. But that's still plenty of air to completely destroy a spacecraft like InSight, which will be moving at about 12,500 mph when it arrives at the red planet.</p><p>NASA tries to take advantage of the Martian atmosphere by putting its robots in an entry capsule with a heat shield. This helps reduce the spacecraft's speed while also protecting it from 1,400-degree-Celsius temperatures - hot enough to melt steel - caused by plowing through the thin Martian air.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0lwFLPiZEE">Lockheed Martin/YouTube</a></span></p><p class="caption">An animation of NASA's InSight probe attempting to land on the surface of Mars.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>However, striking the atmosphere at anything other than the perfect angle - about 12 degrees, Manning said - can end a mission. Any shallower than this, and an entry capsule will "skip" off the atmosphere and out into deep space. Any deeper, and a robot gets vaporized.</p><p>This phase - when an entry capsule detaches from its mothership and descends - is sometimes called the seven minutes of terror. This is because NASA can't "hear" from its spacecraft for roughly seven minutes, and won't know if a landing has succeeded or failed until a radio signal arrives (or doesn't).</p><p>This time around, though, NASA is trying something new: It sent two briefcase-size satellites called MarsCubeOne with Insight. Both cubesats are <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/planet-mars-image-nasa-marco-cubesat-2018-10">trailing the lander en route to Mars</a>, and they'll help relay landing data home.</p><p>"They'll be broadcasting that back to Earth so we know what's exactly happening at each step of the entry, descent, and landing process," <a href="https://mars.nasa.gov/people/info.cfm?id=22920" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tom Hoffman</a>, the InSight mission's payload manager, said during a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bz4f7zlGETI" target="_blank" rel="noopener">press briefing</a> in October.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://images.nasa.gov/details-PIA22318.html">NASA/JPL-Caltech</a></span></p><p class="caption">An engineer tests the solar arrays of NASA's Mars Cube One satellite, or MarCO.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Once InSight plows through enough of the Martian atmosphere to not burn up, its entry capsule will deploy a big supersonic parachute, then discard the heat shield seconds later.</p><p>InSight's dangerous journey isn't over at this point. The robot still has to deploy three landing legs and use radar to calculate how close it is to the ground - NASA can't control the robot remotely in real time because it takes light (and radio signals) about 15 minutes to travel to and from Mars.</p><p>About a mile above the surface of Mars, InSight will drop out of its protective capsule, fire its retro-rocket engines, and try to touch down without crashing or tipping over.</p><h2>How InSight will probe the ancient secrets of Mars - and Earth</h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://images.nasa.gov/details-PIA16078.html">NASA/JPL</a></span></p><p class="caption">A cutaway illustration showing what scientists think the interior of planet Mars might look like.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>InSight will try to land in a region known as <a href="https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/timeline/prelaunch/landing-site-selection/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Elysium Planitia</a>, which is a relatively flat place close to the Martian equator. If the robot safely lands and unfurls its two circular solar panels, NASA will begin its mission in earnest.</p><p>Like InSight's nearly identical predecessor mission, the Phoenix Mars Lander, the probe won't move locations. But unlike Phoenix, which dug for water in Martian soil for a few months in 2008, InSight hopes to last for two Earth years.</p><p>During that time, it will perform the first "<a href="https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/mission/science/overview/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">checkup</a>" of the 4.6-billion-year-old planet.</p><p>"InSight's goal is to study the interior of Mars and take the planet's vital signs, its pulse, and temperature," NASA said on its mission <a href="https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/timeline/landing/summary/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">website</a>. "To look deep into Mars, the lander must be at a place where it can stay still and quiet for its entire mission. That's why scientists chose Elysium Planitia as InSight's home."</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/timeline/prelaunch/landing-site-selection/">NASA; Business Insider</a></span></p><p class="caption">NASA plans to land its InSight robot at Elysium Planitia near the Martian equator.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Once InSight is powered up and in communication with Earth, one of its first tasks will be to unfurl a robotic arm.</p><p>InSight will use that robotic appendage to place a dome down on the Martian surface. The dome will contain six extremely sensitive vibration-detection devices called seismometers.</p><p>Seismometers on the Earth and the moon (<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/apollo-moon-landing-photos-nasa-1969-2018-7">Apollo astronauts deployed some on the lunar surface</a>) have recorded earthquakes and moonquakes, which helped scientists figure out the internal structure of those rocky worlds. On Mars, NASA researchers hope to accomplish a similar feat.</p><p>Whenever a meteorite strikes Mars, or there's a landslide, or a big blob of magma suddenly shifts, or there's tectonic movement, InSight's seismometer should detect such vibrations. The devices can even record seismic activity from all the way across the planet.</p><p>Over time, data about marsquakes could reveal hitherto unknown information about the internal structure of the planet.</p><p>One of the most challenging tasks InSight will attempt, though, is drilling a heat probe deep into the ground. The probe will slowly drill down and stop every so often to heat up. Then a sensor will detect how long it takes that warmth to dissipate.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>NASA/JPL-Caltech</span></p><p class="caption">An artist illustration of the InSight lander on Mars.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>The probe is expected to dig 16 feet down - far deeper than any previous Mars mission has ever reached with scoops, shovels, or drills.</p><p>"When we get down that deep, we'll get away from all of the temperature variations of the surface," Suzanne Smrekar, the mission's deputy principle investigator, said during a press briefing. "That tells us about the heat coming out of the planet - that energy that's available for driving geologic activity."</p><p>Back on the surface, InSight will also use a sensitive radio <keyword id="41551" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="100" keywordseo="science">science</keyword> experiment to see how subtly Mars shifts during its two-Earth-year-long orbit around the sun. Such data should tell researchers what is going on in the deepest parts of the planet's core.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://images.nasa.gov/details-NHQ201810310005.html">NASA/Bill Ingalls</a></span></p><p class="caption">The lead scientists on the InSight mission to Mars, Bruce Banerdt, speaks during a press conference on October 31, 2018.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>The ultimate goal is to figure out how Mars formed and what happened to the planet since then. Scientists know that Mars once generated an atmosphere-protecting magnetic dynamo, as Earth still does today. But the Martian core's dynamo eventually shut down and the planet's protective shield faded, which allowed the sun to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-mars-lost-water-atmosphere-solar-wind-2015-11">blow away Mars' atmosphere</a> and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mars-ocean-mega-tsunami-surface-2016-5">oceans of water</a>.</p><p>In probing that history, scientists think we're bound to learn about our own planet's origins.</p><p>"Earth ... is a big planet that holds a lot of heat, a lot of energy, and it's been very geologically active over its entire history. So most of the record of the early processes that formed the Earth have been erased," Hoffman said. "We'd like to have a planet that's just a little bit calmer and that can retain that that evidence."</p><p>Mars, which is similar to Earth but has remained almost frozen in time, is thus the perfect place to go looking.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/what-humans-look-like-on-mars-2018-5">What humans will look like on Mars</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

NASA's InSight robot is about to land on Mars. Here's how it might survive '7 minutes of terror' and make incredible discoveries about the red planet - and Earth, too.

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Harvard physicist Avi Loeb announced the discovery of tiny "spherules" at the bottom of the Pacific.</li><li>He said these spherules may be from an alien technology outside of our solar system.</li></ul><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/aliens-ufo-harvard-expert-avi-loeb-meteor-spaceship-science-astrophysics-2023-7">Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb</a> announced that he and his team discovered fragments of material at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean that may potentially be linked to aliens.</p><p>The fragments "could be a spacecraft from another civilization, or some technological gadget," Loeb told <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/avi-loeb-harvard-professor-alien-technology-fragments-us/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CBS News</a>.</p><p>But experts who have been searching for alien life for many years told Insider they aren't sold on the idea that <a href="https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/ac8eac/pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Loeb's findings</a> represent evidence of alien intelligence.</p><p>"I like wild and crazy ideas — they make us all think — occasionally one of them might be right. But I'm extremely skeptical about this one," said <a href="https://seti.berkeley.edu/people/Dan.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dan Werthimer</a>, chief technologist of the SETI Research Center at the University of California, Berkeley.</p><h2>'A lot of unknowns' in the data</h2><p>Loeb's team found 50 sub-millimeter-sized "spherules" that he said he thinks came from an interstellar meteoroid, which he named IM1, that crashed into waters near Papua New Guinea in 2014.</p><p>Both the speed of the meteor and the composition of the spherules is why Loeb thinks they may be of possible alien origin. But experts aren't convinced.</p><p>"As I look at the data, there are just a lot of unknowns," said <a href="http://meti.org/en/board/douglas-vakoch" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Douglas Vakoch</a>, president of <a href="http://meti.org/en" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence (METI)</a>, an organization that searches for signs of extraterrestrial life by transmitting intentional signals to nearby stars.</p><h2><div type="image" title="allen telescope array ata seti institute" height="987" width="1484" msid="102041992" hostid="261" sizebytes="97790"></div></h2><h2>The meteroid's speed was calculated from incomplete data, experts said</h2><p>Loeb proposed that the meteor IM1 was of interstellar origin in a <a href="https://arxiv.org/pdf/1904.07224.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">paper</a> he published in 2019. To estimate its speed, he and a student used data from the Center for Near Earth Object Studies, which tracks the speed and trajectory of objects in space that travel close to, and occasionally hit, Earth.</p><p>Loeb wrote in a first-hand account on <a href="https://avi-loeb.medium.com/summary-of-the-successful-interstellar-expedition-61ff4467070d" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Medium</a>:</p><p>"[The data] showed that IM1 was moving outside the solar system faster than 95% of all stars in the vicinity of the Sun. The possibility that IM1's excess speed benefited from propulsion and the fact that it was tougher than all known space rocks, raise the possibility that it may have been technological in origin."</p><p>Bu Werthimer pointed out that the radar used to detect the meteor is known to make mistakes on the <a href="https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/483/4/5166/5256650" target="_blank" rel="noopener">speed of meteors</a> that come in at a shallow angle — like this one did — compared to other instruments.</p><p>That said, US Space Command followed up on Loeb's calculations and, in 2022, issued a <a href="https://lweb.cfa.harvard.edu/~loeb/DoD.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">formal letter</a> to NASA confirming IM1's interstellar origin with 99.999% confidence.</p><p>"The velocity estimate reported to NASA is sufficiently accurate to indicate an interstellar trajectory," the letter stated.</p><p>But it doesn't matter what any government official tells you — the DOD statement has no standing in the scientific community, Vakoch said, echoing the <a href="https://gizmodo.com/interstellar-meteor-2014-scientists-skeptical-1848782995" target="_blank" rel="noopener">concerns of some astrophysicists</a>.</p><h2>The composition of the spherules could mean something totally different</h2><p>Let's forget about the meteor for a second. What about those peculiar spherule fragments?</p><p>Loeb wrote in Medium that "based on the measured abundance of U238, Pb206, U235 and Pb207," in two of the collected spherules, their age was closer to the age of the universe than the age of our solar system.</p><p>"In the coming weeks we will examine further any clue for the spherules being different from solar system materials. This will constitute independent evidence for the interstellar origin of IM1 in addition to its measured speed," Loeb wrote.</p><p>Some experts are still skeptical. <a href="https://www.open.ac.uk/people/mmg67" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Monica Grady</a>, professor of planetary and space sciences at The Open University, wrote in <a href="https://theconversation.com/physicist-who-found-spherical-meteor-fragments-claims-they-may-come-from-an-alien-spaceship-heres-what-to-make-of-it-209101" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a> that spherules from space have been found at the bottom of the ocean as far back as 1872 by the HMS Challenger.</p><p>Nowadays, it can be difficult to tell the difference between spherules and products of industrial pollution.</p><p>Vakoch agreed, saying that, "I don't see anything in the reports of these metallic spheroids that suggests anything close to them being an alien technology, or even necessarily something from outside our solar system."</p><p>Loeb said that early reports of the spherules' chemical composition were from a small sample and not representative of the full collection. Moreover, "the X-ray Fluorescence analyzer used on the ship was blind to some elements," he told Insider over email.</p><p>Now that he's back on land, he said the team has shared the materials with three leading labs that "include world experts with state-of-the-art diagnostic instruments, such as X-ray fluorescence analyzers, mass spectrometers, and scanning electron microscopes," to analyze the spherules' composition in more detail.</p><p>Loeb told Insider that, when ready, the team will publish their findings in a scientific paper that will be "shared openly and submitted for a peer-reviewed journal."</p><p>In the meantime, experts will likely remain skeptical until more concrete proof presents itself.</p><p>"I'm very optimistic about life in the universe — I think it's likely to be teeming with life — but this is not evidence for it," Werthimier said.</p>

The world's top alien hunters explain why a Harvard physicist's discovery of 'alien' tech is likely a false alarm

<p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>OK, so full disclosure that <a href="https://www.generation-beyond.com/mars-experience">this video</a> is a PR stunt by rocket manufacturer Lockheed Martin (the company <a href="http://www.techinsider.io/nasa-mars-mission-with-humans-plan-2016-4">NASA has contracted</a> to build its spacecraft to Mars).<p>But it looks like the&#xa0;kids who participated still had a pretty cool&#xa0;experience.</p><p>Lockheed Martin loaded some students onto a school bus, and took them to Mars (sort of).</p><p>The windows turned into virtual reality screens of the Red Planet. When the bus made a turn, the screens made it look like the bus was making a turn on Mars.&#xa0;</p><p>Watch how excited the kids were:</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image"></div></div><p>The idea behind the stunt was to communicate an exciting point: Children in school today could be the first humans to step foot on Mars. <a href="http://www.techinsider.io/nasa-mars-mission-with-humans-plan-2016-4">NASA plans</a> to get "boots on the ground" in the next 30 years.</p><p>But as former NASA astronaut <a href="http://www.lockheedmartin.com/us/news/features/2015/astronauts-space-1215.html">Tony Antonelli</a>, who's now the chief technologist of exploration systems for Lockheed Martin's civil line of space systems, told Tech Insider, there's not a sense of urgency to get to Mars, and the American people aren't convinced that it will happen.</p><p>"You talk to school kids, though, and say, 'Hey are we going to explore Mars?' It's not a tricky question for them. It's an easy question," he said. "They know that humans are going to explore Mars. I feel the pressure that I want to make sure that we've done everything we can to enable that. I also haven't given up. I want to see it happen."</p><p>Check out the full video:</p><p><div></div></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mars-coming-out-of-ice-age-rover-space-nasa-2016-5">Mars could be going through a major climate shift right now</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="kxcDRyMzE64olsUjzoz-JsTYIvAQcQRm" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

Watch kids react as a magical school bus takes them to 'Mars'

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>VMware</span></p><p class="caption">VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger</p></div><p></p></div></div>VMware announced on Tuesday that its <span>President and COO <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/vmwares-top-execs-are-heading-for-the-door-ahead-of-emc-dell-merger-2016-3">Carl Eschenbach is leaving the company</a></span><span>.</span></p><p><span>The news came as a bit of a surprise given <span>Eschenbach was effectively the #2 guy behind CEO Pat Gelsinger.</span></span></p><p><span><span>But a closer look at VMware shows the top-level exodus has been quietly going on for a while, and <span>Eschenbach is just the latest in a series of recent executive departures at the company.</span></span></span></p><p>Here's a quick run-down of its recent executive departures, based on LinkedIn profiles:</p><p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><span><strong>Jonathan Chadwick, CFO:</strong> Announced resignation last month</span></span></p><p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><span><strong>Ben Fathi, CTO:</strong> Left in September 2015 to join CloudFlare as Head of Engineering</span></span></p><p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Charles Fan, SVP and GM VSAN:</strong> Left in February 2016 to join Cheetah Mobile as CTO</span></p><p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Riccardo di Blasio, SVP vCloud Air Sales:</strong> Left in October 2015 to join Sequoia-backed Cohesity as COO</span></p><p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Simone Brunozzi, VP and Chief Technologist:</strong> Left in January 2016 to join stealth startup</span></p><p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Mathew Lodge, VP of vCloud Air Marketing:</strong> Left in August 2015 to join Accel-backed startup Weaveworks as COO</span></p><p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Diane Gonzalez, VP of vCloud Air Platform:</strong> Left in August 2015 to join Amazon as VP of Commerce Platform</span></p><p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Scott Collison, VP and GM vCloud Air:</strong> Left in September 2015 to join Bessemer-backed startup Nitrous as CEO</span></p><p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Ramin Sayer, SVP of Management:</strong> Left in December 2014 to join Sumo Logic as CEO</span></p><p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Martin Casado, GM and SVP of Networking:</strong> Left in February 2016 to join Andreessen Horowitz as general partner</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">That means in the past year alone, VMware has lost at least 11 of its top executives. On top of that, VMware announced last month that it would be laying off 800 employees, after giving lowered revenue guidance for the upcoming year.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">So what's causing all this change? One former executive we spoke to blamed the current management structure, in which its parent company EMC holds about 80% control of the company. That allows EMC CEO Joe Tucci to have outsized influence over the company's direction, and his hands-on approach only intensified after activist investor Eliot Management <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/activist-investor-pushes-emc-to-break-up-1405915262?ru=yahoo">took a larger stake in the company</a>.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">On top of that, the proposed merger between EMC and Dell is worrying a lot of people internally that the company would end up turning into a slowing company with no fresh innovation. VMware has lost almost 40% of its share value since the proposed merger was first announced in October 2015.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"They're gonna turn into your dad's software company," this person said.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Of course, this is one person's opinion, so it should be taken with a grain of salt. But Wall Street seems to be taking note of this trend, too, as FBR &amp; Co. analyst Daniel Ives wrote in a recent note:</span></p><p class="p1" style="padding-left: 30px;">"We do have major worries about an exodus of employees of VMware wanting to run away from this situation and believe some execution issues can result from this deal, a dynamic VMware hinted at with its conservative 2016 outlook. This will remain a hot-button issue around the VMware story until the company proves otherwise, in our opinion."</p><p class="p1">When we asked VMware about it, its spokesperson told us this is just part of the company's natural transformation cycle, and pointed us towards its deep executive bench.</p><p class="p1"><span>"Leadership change is a natural part of every company's evolution and there is no connection between any of the departures. We continue to attract outstanding talent to the company and we have an extremely strong leadership bench," VMware's spokesperson said.</span></p><p class="p1"><span>In fact, some of the executives on its bench, including sales leader <span>Maurizio Carli, CTO <span>Ray O'Farrell, and executive VP </span><span>Sanjay Poonen were all promoted today to take on bigger roles within the company.</span></span></span></p><p class="p1"><span><span><span>Regardless, with all the management change going on, the situation at VMware will continue to raise question marks for the rest of the year.</span></span></span></p><p class="p1"><span><span><span>"Customers will lose confidence in the company," the former exec we spoke to said. "Where exactly is the company going?"</span></span></span></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/curiosity-rover-mars-takes-selfies-photos-outer-space-nasa-2016-2">There's something unsettling about these photos from NASA's Curiosity Mars rover</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="A5d2dwMDE6k7a5W_p92Tz4lr9sTPvcDb" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

You Searched For "nasa chief technologist" and got 9 results

NASA's InSight lander may not be as sexy as a Mars rover, but here's why the mission matters for Earthlings

Hilary Brueck

NASA's new Mars mission just landed - and it could reveal why Earth is habitable but the red planet is not

Dave Mosher

This is NASA's audacious plan to land humans on Mars within your lifetime

Rebecca Harrington

NASA's future missions to Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and beyond could hit a nuclear roadblock within the next decade

Dave Mosher

NASA's InSight robot is about to land on Mars. Here's how it might survive '7 minutes of terror' and make incredible discoveries about the red planet - and Earth, too.

Dave Mosher,Hilary Brueck

The world's top alien hunters explain why a Harvard physicist's discovery of 'alien' tech is likely a false alarm

Adam Barnes

Watch kids react as a magical school bus takes them to 'Mars'

Rebecca Harrington

There's a serious brain drain going at VMware that no one's talking about

Eugene Kim

A forgotten war technology could safely power Earth for millions of years. Here's why we aren't using it

Dave Mosher

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