PIA20342: MarCO CubeSat Engineers 2


MarCO CubeSat Engineers 2

Caption:

Engineers for NASA's MarCO (Mars Cube One) technology demonstration inspect one of the two MarCO CubeSats. Cody Colley, MarCO integration and test deputy, left, and Andy Klesh, MarCO chief engineer, are on the team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, preparing twin MarCO CubeSats .

The briefcase-size MarCO twins were designed to ride along with NASA's next Mars lander, InSight. Its planned March 2016 launch was suspended.

InSight -- an acronym for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport -- will study the interior of Mars to improve understanding of the processes that formed and shaped rocky planets, including Earth.

Background Info:

The MarCO and InSight projects are managed for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, by JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena.

Photojournal Note : After thorough examination, NASA managers have decided to suspend the planned March 2016 launch of the Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) mission. The decision follows unsuccessful attempts to repair a leak in a section of the prime instrument in the science payload.

Cataloging Keywords:

Name Value Additional Values
Target Mars
System
Target Type Planet
Mission InSight
Instrument Host InSight Lander
Host Type Lander
Instrument MarCO
Detector
Extra Keywords Color
Acquisition Date
Release Date 2016-01-20
Date in Caption
Image Credit NASA/JPL-Caltech
Source photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA20342
Identifier PIA20342