The rocket carrying NASA’s next Mars mission will also launch two potentially ground-breaking tagalong devices to the red planet, the space agency announced Friday.
The InSight Lander will launch on a trip to Mars in March 2016 with two small satellites known as cubesats. Called MarCO (short for Mars Cube One), the two spacecraft are a technology demonstration designed to help with communications at the critical moment when InSight touches down on Mars.
While many cubesats have flown missions above Earth, this will mark the first time this tiny class of spacecraft have made the journey to another planet Read more…