NASA NASA picks another Mars flight to explore its core

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NASA has selected the Insight mission to launch a robotic lander to Mars in 2016, focusing on exploring the planet's core. This decision, made under the Discovery program, has faced criticism from scientists advocating for missions to other celestial bodies, such as Saturn's moon Titan. NASA's science chief, John Grunsfeld, emphasized that Insight presented the best chance of staying within budget and on schedule, with a maximum cost of $425 million. While some scientists express disappointment over the Mars focus, the agency prioritizes missions with clear feasibility. The Insight mission aims to enhance understanding of Martian geology and its core composition.
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http://phys.org/news/2012-08-nasa-mars-flight-explore-core.html

The space agency decided Monday to launch a relatively low-cost robotic lander in 2016 to check out what makes the Martian core so different from Earth's. NASA's Discovery program picked a project called Insight over missions to a Saturn moon and a comet, drawing complaints from scientists who study other places in our solar system that NASA is too focused on Mars. All three proposed missions were good, but the Mars one showed the best chance of making it within budget and on schedule, said NASA sciences chief John Grunsfeld. The missions cost no more than $425 million.

Aww. Titan Mare Explorer looks way more exciting to me, even if we had results only when I'm 37 years old.
 
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Thread 'Space Stuff and Launch Info'

Due to the constant never ending supply of "cool stuff" happening in Aerospace these days I'm creating this thread to consolidate posts every time something new comes along. Please feel free to add random information if its relevant. So to start things off here is the SpaceX Dragon launch coming up shortly, I'll be following up afterwards to see how it all goes. :smile: https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacex/
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