Lander will probe beneath the surface of Mars to understand more about the formation of the Solar System ’s rocky planets

The scheduled 6.5-hr. excursion will be followed by a U.S. excursion on Aug. 30

NEXT MISSION: As NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory rover prepares for its first moves, the agency is looking ahead to its next mission on the surface of the red planet. To launch in 2016, InSight will place instruments on the Martian surface to investigate whether the planet has a solid or liquid core, and why the planet’s crust is not divided into tectonic plates, like that of the Earth. The French and German space agencies are contributing instruments to InSight, which will land in September 2016 to begin a two-year mission.

U.S. and French scientists plan to test the Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument on NASA’s Curiosity rover by “zapping” a nearby rock with “several megawatts” of laser power in the next few days and analyzing the resulting spectra to determine the target’s composition.

The National Research Council recommends a closely coordinated series of solar physics missions over the next decade

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — The U.S. Army is exploring whether a short-range missile defense target, designed to be one-third the price of using Patriot missiles in such a role, can feasibly be added to its arsenal to reduce the cost of flight testing. The Economical Target makes use of surplus rocket motors, coupled with a rudimentary rocket body to effectively form a sounding rocket suitable for some missile defense tests, says Thomas Webber, acting director for rapid transition at Army Strategic Command.

LOGAN, Utah — Additive Manufacturing (AM) technology used to make parts for high-performance race cars is being applied to the tricky problem of propulsion for cubesats and other small spacecraft that are typically launched as secondary payloads. Matthew Dushku, head of the Experiment Propulsion Lab here, has tested a hybrid rocket motor created with a 3-D printing technique from Windform XT 2.0, a picocarbon reinforced nylon material that can be laid up in layers as a powder and hardened with a laser scanner.

PASADENA, Calif. — Even as more senior staffers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory here begin to explore Mars with the state-of-the-art Curiosity rover, a group of scientists, engineers and neophyte managers in their 20s is preparing to use whatever is at hand to validate space-to-ground laser communications.