The seismometer instrument’s main sensors need to operate within a vacuum chamber to provide the exquisite sensitivity needed for measuring ground movements as small as half the radius of a hydrogen atom.

The rework of the seismometer’s vacuum container will result in a thoroughly tested instrument in 2017 that will maintain a high degree of vacuum around the sensors through rigors of launch, landing, deployment and a two-year prime mission on the surface of Mars.

“The shared and renewed commitment to this mission continues our collaboration to find clues in the heart of Mars about the early evolution of our solar system,” said Marc Pircher, director of CNES’s Toulouse Space Centre.

NASA is on an ambitious journey to Mars that includes sending humans to the Red Planet, and that work remains on track.

Robotic spacecraft are leading the way for NASA’s Mars Exploration Programme, with the upcoming Mars 2020 rover being designed and built and the Opportunity and Curiosity rovers exploring the Martian surface.

The Odyssey and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft are currently orbiting the planet, along with the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Mission (MAVEN) orbiter, which is helping scientists understand what happened to the Martian atmosphere.

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