Domenico Giardini, professor of seismology and geophysics at ETH Zurich, John Clinton from the Swiss Seismological Service (SED) and Peter Zweifel, heading the engineering team that developed the SEIS electronics, have long been waiting for this moment. At 4.05 a.m. local time, an Atlas rocket lifted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. An hour later, the final boost pushed the rocket beyond the attraction of the Earth, the spacecraft separated and now follows the planned trajectory towards Mars. It will take just over six months for the spacecraft to reach its destination.
The three ETH researchers can breathe a sigh of relief, because on board the spacecraft is their “baby” – a highly specialised electronic control and data acquisition system developed at ETH Zurich and integrated into the InSight lander’s SEIS seismometer. Scientists are planning to use SEIS to record seismic activity and meteorite impacts that will enable them to investigate the interior of Mars.
A sense of relief for the scientists
“We’re very happy about the successful launch, because we’ve been working towards this moment for almost 20 years,” says Giardini, who is in charge of ETH’s side of the Mars mission. “If everything goes well, we may receive the first test data in early 2019. We’re extremely excited about this.”
Until then, the ETH researchers will still need some patience. After a 485 million kilometre trip through space, on 26 November 2018 things will happen fast: in just six minutes, the lander will penetrate the thin Martian atmosphere, a large parachute will slow down its fall, and retrorockets will accompany the final descent for a soft landing on the planet’s vast Elysium Planitia plain.
