Explain the significance of InSight Mars Mission launched by NASA? How is it different from India’s Mangalyaan mission? (200 Words)
Refer- The Indian Express
Enrich the answer from other sources, if the question demands.
IAS Parliament 6 years
KEY POINTS
The significance of Insight Mars Mission
· The mission will study the overall structure of the core, mantle and crust, as well as the rate at which heat escapes from the planet's interior. This will provide glimpses into the evolutionary processes of all of the rocky planets in the inner solar system.
· InSight will help answer questions about how the rocky planets of the solar system formed. It will do this by looking for seismic waves, studying the planet's wobble as it moves in its orbit around the Sun.
· Scientists hope to compare Earth to Mars, and better understand how a planet’s starting materials make it more or less likely to support life.
Comparison with Mangalyaan Mission
· InSight won’t be looking for life on Mars, while Mangalyaan will look for Exploration of Mars surface features by studying the morphology, topography and mineralogy. This will help scientist to research about life on Mars.
· Insight will focus on interior mars, but Mangalyaan will study the dynamics of the upper atmosphere of Mars, effects of solar wind and radiation and the escape of volatiles to outer space.
· Insight focuses exclusively on marsquakes(seismic events) while it is absent in case of Mars orbiter mission.
· Mangalyaan is an orbiter mission while Insight is a lander, it landed on the surface of Mars.
