Jump to navigation Main menu home Company Products Services Projects Media Contact HP3 mechanism models for the NASA InSight mission delivered to the German Space Agency Our company has designed and manufactured a device that, as part of the NASA InSight mission, will make a historic dive 5 meters below the surface of Mars and examine the properties of its soil. "Mole" will be the first complete system delivered for such an important mission by the Polish industry. As part of the InSight mission (Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport), an unmanned lander will be sent to Mars to conduct geophysical research of the planet. The mission is to last two Earth years. The launch of the probe was scheduled for March 2016, but in December 2015, due to technical reasons, the launch was canceled. The most likely new start date is (due to the next "start window") May 2018. HP3 (Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package) is a probe for measuring the heat flux from the inside of the planet, which will be introduced to a depth of 5 m into the Martian soil. The HP3 is one of the three main measurement devices that the InSight mission will take with it. The German Space Agency (DLR), responsible to NASA for the implementation of the HP3 device, asked for support in the implementation of the device for Astronika before the originally planned launch of the mission. It was then that Astronika prepared the first version of the device, and due to the postponement of the mission start, the company was commissioned to make further, improved versions of the device. It is worth noting that the HP3 penetrator is a complete device designed and made in Poland. Polish companies are becoming more and more often contractors of device components, but the implementation of such a complete order is so far rare in our country. The main contractor for the penetrator was Astronika, but several other entities were involved in the production process, including Space Research Center of the Polish Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Aviation, the Welding Institute, the Lodz University of Technology and the Warsaw University of Technology. See all news Contact email: office@astronika.pl phone: (+48) 22 3296 234 design and implementation of Webmedio Copyright © 2014 Astronika I accept The website uses cookies to deliver services. You can define the conditions for storing or accessing cookies in your browser.