Bruce Banerdt: What NASA's InSight will tell us about Mars

Bruce Banerdt: What NASA's InSight will tell us about Mars

By drilling into the surface of Mars, NASA's InSight mission could help us discover more about the structure of the Red Planet, and maybe help us understand the formation of other planets.

Jason Goodyer

Published: November 15, 2018 at 12:00 am

Despite the success of missions such as Opportunity and Curiosity in exploring the surface of Mars, we still know relatively little about what is going on beneath the surface of the Red Planet. NASA’s Insight mission, which is scheduled to land on the Martian surface on 26 November, is hoping to change all of this.

BBC Focus commissioning editor Jason Goodyer spoke to Bruce Banerdt, principal investigator at the InSight mission, about the project’s history, its objectives, the technology it will be using, and what studying the internal structure of Mars can teach us about the formation of planets in general.

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Jason Goodyer

Commissioning editor, BBC Science Focus

Jason is the commissioning editor for BBC Science Focus. He holds an MSc in physics and was named Section Editor of the Year by the British Society of Magazine Editors in 2019. He has been reporting on science and technology for more than a decade. During this time, he's walked the tunnels of the Large Hadron Collider, watched Stephen Hawking deliver his Reith Lecture on Black Holes and reported on everything from simulation universes to dancing cockatoos. He looks after the magazine’s and website’s news sections and makes regular appearances on the Instant Genius Podcast.
What NASA's InSight will tell us about Mars - Bruce Banerdt © NASA/JPL-Caltech

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