InSight mission heads to Mars with UK-built seismometer on board

A UK-built instrument designed to measure seismic waves on Mars has set off to the Red Planet as part of NASA’s InSight mission.

The InSight mission - Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport – launched from California aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket on Saturday 5, 2018.

The InSight Lander will use its instruments to help increase scientific understanding of the formation and evolution of terrestrial planets, and determine current levels of tectonic activity and meteorite-impact activity on Mars, factors which could provide valuable knowledge about such events on Earth.

The UK Space Agency has invested £4m in the short period Seismometer (SEIS-SP), which NASA said is part of a six-sensor seismometer that combines two types of sensors to measure ground motions over a wide range of frequencies.

This will be on the surface of Mars to measure seismic waves from so-called Marsquakes. Scientists expect to detect anywhere between a dozen and a hundred of these tremors up to 6.0 on the Richter scale over the course of two years.