WIKIARCHIVES.SPACE

Technicians cover the interior of a section of the fairing for NASA's InSight mission to prevent contamination during prelaunch processing in the west high bay of the Astrotech Space Operations processing facility on Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. InSight will launch aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V 401 rocket. InSight, short for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport, will study processes that formed and shaped Mars. Its findings will improve understanding about the evolution of our inner solar system's rocky planets, including Earth. The lander will be the first mission to permanently deploy instruments directly onto Martian ground using a robotic arm. The mission is scheduled to launch from Space Launch Complex 3E in March 2016 and land on Mars in September 2016.