DENVER, May 27, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Lockheed Martin
(NYSE: LMT) has assembled NASA's InSight Mars spacecraft, which is
now undergoing environmental testing at the company's Space Systems
facilities near Denver. InSight is
NASA's next mission to Mars and will be the first mission devoted
to understanding the interior structure of the planet.
Photos of InSight: http://www.lockheedmartin.com/
us/news/press-releases/2015/may/0527-space-insight.html
InSight will endure the extreme vibration and noise of launch, a
long journey through the vacuum and cold of deep space and the
gauntlet of entry through the Martian atmosphere before beginning
operations on the surface. Because of the extreme environments the
spacecraft will encounter during its mission, the lander will
undergo a variety of rigorous tests that will ensure it can survive
the journey.
During the environmental testing phase, the lander will be
exposed to extreme temperatures, vacuum and a litany of other tests
through the end of the year. The first of these tests will be a
thermal vacuum test in the spacecraft's "cruise" configuration used
during its seven-month journey to Mars.
InSight will then be subjected to a barrage of additional tests,
including reverberant acoustic, separation and deployment shock,
and electromagnetic interference and compatibility testing. The
testing phase concludes with a second thermal vacuum test where the
spacecraft is exposed to the temperatures and atmospheric pressures
it will experience as it operates on the surface of Mars.
"The assembly of InSight went very well, and now it's time to
see how it performs," said Stu
Spath, InSight program manager at Lockheed Martin Space
Systems Company. "The environmental testing regimen is designed to
wring out any issues with the spacecraft so we can resolve them
while it's here on Earth. This phase takes nearly as long as
assembly, but we want to make sure we deliver a vehicle to NASA
that will perform as expected in extreme environments."
Scheduled to launch in March 2016
from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, InSight is a robotic exploration
mission that will record measurements of the interior of the Red
Planet, giving scientists unprecedented detail into the evolution
of Mars and other terrestrial planets. The InSight mission will
address one of the most fundamental issues of planetary and solar
system science; understanding the processes that shaped the rocky
planets of the inner solar system (including Earth) more than four
billion years ago.
"It's great to see the spacecraft put together in its launch
configuration," said InSight Project Manager Tom Hoffman at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory
(JPL). "Many teams from across the globe have worked long hours to
get their elements of the system delivered for these tests. There
still remains much work to do before we are ready for launch, but
it is fantastic to get to this critical milestone."
The InSight mission is led by Bruce
Banerdt of (JPL). The science team includes U.S. and
international co-investigators from universities, industry and
government agencies. The French space agency (CNES) and the German
Aerospace Center (DLR) are also each contributing a science
instrument to the two-year scientific mission. InSight's
international science team combines researchers from Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States. JPL, a division of the
California Institute of Technology,
manages InSight for NASA's Science Mission Directorate.
For additional information:
- http://www.lockheedmartin.com
- http://insight.jpl.nasa.gov/home.cfm
About Lockheed Martin
Headquartered in Bethesda,
Maryland, Lockheed Martin is a global security and aerospace
company that employs approximately 112,000 people worldwide and is
principally engaged in the research, design, development,
manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology
systems, products and services. The Corporation's net sales for
2014 were $45.6 billion.
Media Contact:
Gary Napier +1 303-971-4012;
gary.p.napier@lmco.com
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SOURCE Lockheed Martin