Proposed Mars Mission Has Been Given A New Name A proposed
Discovery mission concept led by NASA’s Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., to investigate the formation and
evolution of terrestrial planets by studying the deep interior
of Mars now has a new name, InSight. InSight stands for Interior
Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat
Transport and is a partnership involving JPL, Lockheed Martin
Space Systems, the French Space Agency (CNES), the German
Aerospace Center (DLR), and other NASA centers. The previous
name for the proposal was GEMS (GEophysical Monitoring Station).
NASA requested that name be reserved for an astrophysics mission
known as the Gravity and Extreme Magnetism Small Explorer, which
was already in development. “We chose the name InSight because
we would literally peer into the interior of Mars to map out its
structure,” said JPL’s Bruce Banerdt, the principal
investigator. “With our geophysical instruments we will be able
to see right through to the center of Ma