James T. Kirk Goes to Mars

James T. Kirk is going to Mars or better said, the actor, who famously portrayed Capt. James T. Kirk in the original "Star Trek" TV series and a number of movies, is one of more than 2.4 million people who have signed up to send their names to Mars aboard NASA's InSight lander.

The signatures will ride aboard two microchips affixed to InSight, which is scheduled to launch toward the Red Planet in May 2018. The first microchip is already aboard; it has been engraved with 827,000 names, which were collected in 2015.

InSight set for possible 2016 Launch Date

Listener Dan sent in some info on NASA's next planned mission to Mars. Called InSight, the lander's misson will involve - drilling 16 feet into the crust of Mars. The mission, set to launch in 2016,

• will provide detailed information about the planet’s core, in particular determining whether it is liquid or solid.

InSight's landing will be no where near as complex as Curiosity's and in fact more closely resemble Phoenix's "beach ball / airbag" system.  Its' complement of scientific gear will consist of
a robotic arm and two black-and-white cameras as well as instruments to measure Martian seismic activity and the planet’s rotation axis. A small drill-like instrument that will drill several feet into the Martian soil to make temperature measurements.

InSight is part of NASA's Discovery program which is designed to do as much science as it can for as small a price-tag possible. In that vein, the InSight probe was topped at no more than 425 million. Far cheaper than Curiosity, but still able to carry out significant research. Discovery missions must also compete for with other missions of its' class for selection. Other projects being considered were:

• the Comet Hopper, which would have explored the body of a comet, and the Titan Mare Explorer, which planned to land a small boat-like probe on a methane lake on Saturn’s moon Titan.

If all goes well, InSight will launch sometime in 2016

for more information check out NASA/JPL

and also the WIKI site here