My boarding pass. Think NASA will let me sneak on board? (screenshot NASA.gov)
NASA’s InSight lander will head to Mars in March 2016, and NASA wants your name to be on board.
Colorado currently ranks 13th in sign-ups. This is unacceptable. InSight is Colorado’s spaceship: it in Littleton and will fly into space on a United Launch Alliance (from Centennial!) .
Poor showing, considering Colorado has the number one per-capita aerospace economy in the U.S. (Sceenshot from NASA.gov)
Besides, do we REALLY want to let NEW JERSEY beat us? Really, New Jersey.
InSight stands for ‘.’ Unlike NASA’s Opportunity and Curiosity rovers, which travel around exploring the surface of Mars, InSight will drill into the planet and use several instruments, such as a seismometer and heat-flow probe, to study the planet’s interior. The mission will give scientists a better understanding of how planets of the inner solar system — including Earth — were formed.
One of the coolest Colorado mission ties may go to Ball Aerospace in Boulder. InSight needs seismic data for some of its tests, so a — launched in 2005 — was brought in to assist with locating areas where bolides (aka super-bright and hard-impacting meteorites) hit the surface. Images from HiRISE were used to certify a landing spot for the spacecraft that would be a good candidate for seismic activity.
This photo from HiRISE, built by Ball Aerospace in Boulder, shows the crater left by a bolide on the surface of Mars. Scientists estimate the impact took place between 2008 and 2012. (NASA/JPL)
NASA previously sent during its from Cape Canaveral, Fla. Orion also had about a bazillion Colorado ties, which you can read about , and .
InSight is full assembled and at Lockheed Martin in Littleton. The lander is scheduled to launch in March 2016 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. It will land on Mars in September 2016.
The deadline to send your name to Mars aboard InSight is Sept. 8. To add your name to the list and get your own boarding pass, visit
NASA’s InSight Mars lander spacecraft is commanded to deploy its solar arrays in a Lockheed Martin clean room near Denver in order to test and verify the exact process it will use on the surface of Mars. (Lockheed Martin)
