ABSTRACT

The InSight mission has the distinction of being the first landed mission primarily focused on in situ geophysical measurements of another planet. It also constituted the first operational planetary seismic experiment since Viking. Its primary payload, consisting of a very-broad-band seismometer, a precision tracking system, and a heat flow probe, was tightly focused on meeting ten specific scientific objectives related to the deep interior structure and dynamics of Mars. Despite the necessity, dictated by the fixed-cost nature of a Discovery Program mission, to relentlessly focus the payload on the primary mission objectives, the InSight project was able to fly a set of instruments, sensors, and supporting infrastructure that proved technically and scientifically robust and flexible in addressing a wide range of scientific questions across a broad spectrum of disciplines during its four years on the martian surface. In this lecture I will discuss the background, highlights, and scientific legacy of the InSight mission.

About the Speaker:

Dr. Bruce Banerdt, Principal Investigator of the InSight mission, is a planetary geophysicist whose research has focused on the geological history of the planet Mars and geophysical investigations of the interiors of terrestrial planets using analyses of gravity, magnetic, topographic and seismic data. He holds a B.S. in Physics and a Ph.D. in Geophysics from the University of Southern California and has worked for over 45 years in the Earth and Space Sciences Division of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Dr. Banerdt has served on a number of NASA and National Academy of Sciences advisory panels on planetary and space science and has published over 140 journal articles, reports and book chapters. In addition to writing a staggering number of failed planetary instrument and mission proposals, he has participated in several planetary flight instrument teams, including the MOLA altimeters on Mars Observer and Mars Global Surveyor, and the imaging radar on Magellan. He served as Project Scientist for the Spirit and Opportunity rovers for six years before heading up the successful NASA Discovery Program Proposal for the InSight Mission.