 New insight into the red planet presented by science at NASA This is a story more than 4.5 billion years in the making We've always referred to Mars as the red planet because of its surface color But what's below that dusty crust? We don't know a new NASA mission is determined to find out on May 5th 2018 in Atlas V rocket launched the insight lander to Mars Insight is a 19 foot or 6 meter 794 pound or 360 kilogram Solar powered data gathering machine armed with a nearly 8 foot or 2.4 meter robotic arm and an array of specialized sensors Over the two years of its primary mission or a little over one Martian year Insight will help scientists determine the structure of the Martian interior including the size of the planet's core and the thickness of its crust and mantle It will also help scientists determine the elements found in the core and the composition of the crust and mantle Bruce Bannert is Insight's principal investigator at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California Information gleaned from the mission he explains will help scientists compare what's found in Mars to what we believe is deep inside our own planet It will also help improve the computer models of early planet formation of our neighbors in the inner solar system and even what may be inside rocky exoplanets. In essence it could help us better understand how planets are born Shortly after landing Insight's robotic arm will lift the seismometer and heat probe from its deck and place them on the surface A camera on the arm will show a color 3D view of the landing site Sensors will measure weather and magnetic field variations and then the real work begins The heat probe will burrow itself into the crust millimeters at a time until it reaches a depth of about 16 feet or 5 meters and then measure how warm the interior is and how much heat is flowing through the planet The seismometer on the other hand will measure the tectonic activity on the planet Just how many not earthquakes but Marsquakes are produced over time? How powerful are they? Do they have a pattern or are they randomly located? When a quake occurs on a planet it releases waves of energy that bounce throughout the interior of that planet The waves travel at different velocities depending on the geologic material they travel through and if the waves travel along the surface or deep into the planet Insight seismometers will measure the size, frequency and speed of these waves giving scientists a snapshot of the material they pass through Bannert says it's a bit like taking a CT scan of a planet An insight will not only look below but above measuring how often meteorites impact the surface Combined, Insight's many experiments may help scientists explain why some rocky planets turn into an Earth rather than a Mars or Venus And that's a factor that's essential to our understanding of where life can appear in the universe To get even more insight into this first of its kind mission, visit science.nasa.gov