NASA's InSight Lander will examine the interior of Mars like never before. Here's why.

On Monday, November 26, Mars fans around the world will look forward to NASA landing a new mission called InSight on the Red Planet – but for the scientists who built the mission, true enthusiasm will only begin.

Indeed, the $ 850 million InSight mission has an ambitious set of scientific tasks to perform during its surface work time, which should last about two years. While many orbits, landers and rovers have sought to understand the surface and atmosphere of Mars, InSight – or more officially, Inland Exploration using seismic surveys, geodesy and heat transport – will be the first to turn its sights look inward.

With only three main instruments aboard the lander, the team has carefully designed the mission to tackle a great mystery: what lies beneath the Martian surface – geologically, it is. This allows InSight to distinguish itself from the many missions that have gradually turned to the possibility of a lifetime on Mars throughout its history, including the Curiosity rover and the upcoming March 2020 rover. [NASA’s InSight Mars Lander: Full Coverage]

InSight has three main projects that will structure their time on Mars.

First, it features a seismometer with a series of environmental sensors. You may be familiar with the seismometers of their work on Earth, detecting tremor in the ground, and InSight will perform a similar task, detecting ground shocks that scientists call marsquakes, as well as tremors triggered by meteorite impacts.

However, terrestrial seismometers provide a dense network of instruments that help scientists identify the cause of the jolts felt by these instruments. The seismometer of InSight will be the only meaning of the earthquake on the entire planet Mars. Scientists have therefore had to adapt the instrument to ensure that they can always get the data they need. They also hope to see as much shaking as possible in order to maximize the data they can use and their accuracy.

Another challenge for the seismometer was to eliminate all other factors that may resemble tremors on the part of the super sensitive instrument. This means that the seismometer is equipped with a series of sensors that measure factors such as wind and pressure, which could be misinterpreted as earthquakes.

Once the seismometer has had time to gather data on the tremors, the team hopes to be able to map the layers within Mars, as the waves move differently in the rock under different conditions. The analysis could also potentially identify liquid water or plumes feeding volcanoes, although scientists do not yet trust it.

This underground mapping project is paralleled with the work done by a second instrument, an incredibly accurate pair of radio transmitters. By bouncing signals to and from Earth and observing their path, scientists can determine where InSight is in the space up to a few centimeters (a few inches).

Using this ultra-detailed location, scientists can then watch the LG landmark move through time and gradually map the tiny oscillations of the Mars rotation. These flickers reflect the inner structure of the planet, especially when its core is between the solid and the liquid – the latter slides more.

The latest task of InSight is to deploy a thermal probe capable of hammering itself within 5 meters of the Martian surface, much deeper than the few inches that other spacecraft have drilled on planetary bodies.

The probe will measure how heat rises across the planet, which should help scientists determine where this heat is coming from. He can also produce his own brief hot flashes and study how this heat circulates in the surrounding rock to learn more about the rock making up the Martian crust.

In all, the three InSight projects will help scientists understand how our neighbor was born and determine if Mars is formed from the same mix of materials as Earth and our moon. This could have implications for our broader understanding of the formation of our solar system – and even for what we know about the formation of the solar system in general.

So, get excited for the drama of the landing – but remember, this is only the beginning for InSight.

Email Meghan Bartels at [email protected] or follow her. @meghanbartels. follow us @Spacedotcom and Facebook. Original article on Space.com.