NASA Mars Mission Postponed Due To Spacecraft Leak

The space agency announced today that the launch of the Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) lander mission scheduled for next March has been scrubbed due to a persistent vacuum leak in the lander’s primary science instrument.

NASA says it’s delaying next year’s Mars mission because of a leak in an important instrument. The instrument vacuum sealed to withstand the harsh conditions on the red planet.

Insight was expected to arrive at Mars in September to take measurements of the red planet’s interior and its atmosphere, and to take color images. But it says the positions of the planets needs to be just right; that won’t come until 2018.

A U.S. technology satellite planned to start in March to Mars continues to be seated as a result of trickle in a vital study device, NASA stated on Thursday, making doubt concerning the widely-anticipated work review the inside of the planet’s potential.

Since the opportunities to send spacecraft to Mars occur during favorable orbital geometries that occur every 26 months, InSight won’t get another chance to leave Earth until 2018. “Space exploration is unforgiving”, noted John Grunsfeld, who heads NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, “and the bottom line is that we’re not ready to launch in the 2016 window”.

So far, the US space agency has spent $525 million on the program, including buying an Atlas 5 rocket from United Launch Alliance, a partnership of Lockheed Martin (LMT.N) and Boeing (BA.N).

The faulty instrument is a very sensitive seismometer created to measure movements in the Martian soil as small as the diameter of an atom, NASA said in a statement.

Unfortunately, during testing on Monday in extremely cold temperatures of -45°C, the instrument again failed to hold a vacuum.

Earlier in the year, a leak was found and resolved. The probe was slated to head to Mars in March 2016 to study the planet’s interior and reveal how terrestrial worlds (including Earth) form.

“A decision on a path forward will be made in the coming months, but one thing is clear: NASA remains fully committed to the scientific discovery and exploration of Mars”, Grunsfeld added. Its findings will improve understanding about the evolution of the inner solar system’s rocky planets, including Earth. Gaining information about the core, mantle and crust of Mars is a high priority for planetary science, and InSight was built to accomplish this. The agency said one of the key instruments of the spacecraft can’t be fixed in time for lift off.

NASA insists the delayed launch of the InSight does not jeopardize NASA’s overall goal of reaching Mars, although Mars enthusiasts are taking the news rather hard. SEIS has been provided by the French space agency CNES.