The InSight Mission to Mars
by
JPL Mission Principal Investigator
Dr. Bruce Banerdt
(Landed at Elysium Planitia on November 26, 2018)

(Event is free for all. You do not need to be a member of AIAA to attend the event. Students are welcome. RSVP is encouraged to get a headcount to plan the event hall arrangements.)

Saturday, November 16, 2019

(Free food (Pizza) and softdrinks)

Dr. Bruce Banerdt (Jet Propulsion Laboratory)

Dr. Bruce Banerdt, Principal Investigator of the InSight mission, is a planetary geophysicist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He holds a B.S. in Physics and a Ph.D. in Geophysics from the University of Southern California and has worked in the Earth and Space Sciences Division of JPL since 1977. Dr. Banerdt has served on a number of NASA and National Academy of Sciences advisory panels on planetary and space science and has published over 90 journal articles, reports and book chapters. His research focuses on the geological history of the planet Mars and geophysical investigations of the interiors of terrestrial planets using analyses of gravity, magnetic, topographic and seismic data. He has participated in several planetary flight instrument teams, including the MOLA altimeters on Mars Observer and Mars Global Surveyor, the SAR on Magellan, and the Seismometer on the CNES NetLander mission, and he served as Project Scientist for the Spirit and Opportunity rovers for six years.

The InSight Mission to Mars

 
The InSight landed in the Elysium Planitia region of Mars on November 26, 2018. In contrast to the 45 previous missions to Mars, which have thoroughly explored its surface features and chemistry, atmosphere, and searched for past or present life, InSight will focus on the deep interior of the plane, investigating the processes of terrestrial planet formation and evolution by performing the first comprehensive surface-based geophysical measurements on Mars, using seismology, precision tracking (for rotational dynamics), and heat flow measurements. It will provide key information on the composition and structure of an Earth-like planet that has gone through most of the evolutionary stages of the Earth up to plate tectonics. I will describe the mission and its science goals, and give an update on its current status on the surface of Mars.