Question: Consider the following statement related to insight mission:
(1) This mission was related to planet Jupiter
(2) India is part of this mission
Choose the correct option/s:
(a) Only(1)
(b) Both(1) and (2)
(c) Only(2)
(d) Neither (1) nor (2)
Answer: (d)
Related facts:
- NASA’s Mars InSight lander has measured and recorded for the first time ever a likely marsquake. On 6th April, faint seismic signal, was detected by the lander’s Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS) instrument.
- This is the first recorded trembling that appears to have come from inside the planet, as opposed to being caused by forces above the surface, such as wind. Scientists still are examining the data to determine the exact cause of the signal.
- The new seismic event was too small to provide solid data on the Martian interior, which is one of InSight’s main objectives. The Martian surface is extremely quiet, allowing SEIS, InSight’s specially designed seismometer, to pick up faint rumbles.
- In contrast, Earth’s surface is quivering constantly from seismic noise created by oceans and weather.
- NASA’s Apollo astronauts installed five seismometers that measured thousands of quakes while operating on the Moon between 1969 and 1977, revealing seismic activity on the Moon.
- Different materials can change the speed of seismic waves or reflect them, allowing scientists to use these waves to learn about the interior of the Moon and model its formation.
- NASA currently is planning to return astronauts to the Moon by 2024, laying the foundation that will eventually enable human exploration of Mars.
- InSight’s seismometer, which the lander placed on the planet’s surface on 19th Dec, 2018, will enable scientists to gather similar data about Mars.
- By studying the deep interior of Mars, it will be known that how other rocky worlds, including Earth and the Moon, formed.
- Three other seismic signals occurred on 14th March, 10th April and 11th April.
- Ultimately, the mission team behind InSight hopes to use the spacecraft’s marsquake detections to figure out what Mars is made of.
- The waves from a quake pass through all of the different rocks and material within the planet, so these signals provide crucial information about the structure of the Martian interior. It’s like taking an ultrasound of the planet.
- While the quake on 6th April was too small to help scientists achieve this goal, there is still hope that NASA will have much more data to work with soon.
- The InSight lander is still having trouble with its other big instrument.
- The spacecraft also came to Mars equipped with a self-hammering drill that’s designed to burrow into the planet’s surface in order to take the world’s internal temperature. Unfortunately, InSight’s drill, got stuck while hammering itself into the ground.
Links:
https://mars.nasa.gov/news/8430/nasas-insight-detects-first-likely-quake-on-mars/?site=insight
https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/23/18512822/mars-quake-nasa-insight-spacecraft-first-seismometer