WASHINGTON: Future Mars exploration has got a date, finally. NASA’s new InSight mission — set to study the deep interior of Red Planet — is targeting a new launch window that begins on May 5, 2018, with a Mars landing scheduled for November 26 in the same year.

The Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) mission will help scientists understand how rocky planets — including Earth — formed and evolved.

The spacecraft had been on track to launch this month until a vacuum leak in its prime science instrument prompted NASA in December to suspend preparations for launch.

“The science goals of InSight are compelling and the NASA and France’s space agency Centre National d’Études Spatiales (CNES) plans to overcome the technical challenges are sound,” said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington, DC.

“The quest to understand the interior of Mars has been a longstanding goal of planetary scientists for decades. We’re excited to be back on the path for a launch, now in 2018,” he added in a statement.

Engineers from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California will redesign, build and conduct qualifications of the new vacuum enclosure for the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS) — the component that failed in December.

CNES will lead instrument level integration and test activities, allowing the InSight Project to take advantage of each organisation’s proven strengths.

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