<p class="title">NASA said its InSight mission to Mars will measure the red planet's temperature for the first time to decode how the massive mountains on the Martian surface formed.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Mars has some of the tallest mountains in the solar system. They include Olympus Mons, a volcano nearly three times the height of Mount Everest, NASA said in a statement.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The mountain borders a region called the Tharsis plateau, where three equally awe-inspiring volcanoes dominate the landscape.</p>.<p class="bodytext">NASA and DLR (German Aerospace Center) plan to take the planet's temperature for the first time ever, measuring how heat flows out of the planet and drives this inspiring geology.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Detecting this escaping heat will be a crucial part of InSight mission, managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).</p>.<p class="bodytext">InSight, which is scheduled to land on Mars on November 26, will be the first mission to study its deep interior.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The probe will use its Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3) instrument to measure heat as it is conducted from the interior to the planet's surface, NASA said.</p>.<p class="bodytext">This energy was in part captured when Mars formed more than four billion years ago, preserving a record of its creation.</p>.<p class="bodytext">That energy is also due to the decay of radioactive elements in the rocky interior.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The way heat moves through a planet's mantle and crust determines what surface features it will have, said JPL's Sue Smrekar, the mission's deputy principal investigator.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"Most of the planet's geology is a result of heat," Smrekar said.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"Volcanic eruptions in the ancient past were driven by the flow of this heat, pushing up and constructing the towering mountains Mars is famous for," said Smrekar.</p>.<p class="bodytext">While scientists have modelled the interior structure of Mars, InSight will provide the first opportunity to find the ground truth -- by literally looking below the ground.</p>.<p class="bodytext">A probe called a mole will pummel the ground, burying itself and dragging a tether behind it.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Temperature sensors embedded in this tether will measure the natural internal heat of Mars. </p>
<p class="title">NASA said its InSight mission to Mars will measure the red planet's temperature for the first time to decode how the massive mountains on the Martian surface formed.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Mars has some of the tallest mountains in the solar system. They include Olympus Mons, a volcano nearly three times the height of Mount Everest, NASA said in a statement.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The mountain borders a region called the Tharsis plateau, where three equally awe-inspiring volcanoes dominate the landscape.</p>.<p class="bodytext">NASA and DLR (German Aerospace Center) plan to take the planet's temperature for the first time ever, measuring how heat flows out of the planet and drives this inspiring geology.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Detecting this escaping heat will be a crucial part of InSight mission, managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).</p>.<p class="bodytext">InSight, which is scheduled to land on Mars on November 26, will be the first mission to study its deep interior.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The probe will use its Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3) instrument to measure heat as it is conducted from the interior to the planet's surface, NASA said.</p>.<p class="bodytext">This energy was in part captured when Mars formed more than four billion years ago, preserving a record of its creation.</p>.<p class="bodytext">That energy is also due to the decay of radioactive elements in the rocky interior.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The way heat moves through a planet's mantle and crust determines what surface features it will have, said JPL's Sue Smrekar, the mission's deputy principal investigator.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"Most of the planet's geology is a result of heat," Smrekar said.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"Volcanic eruptions in the ancient past were driven by the flow of this heat, pushing up and constructing the towering mountains Mars is famous for," said Smrekar.</p>.<p class="bodytext">While scientists have modelled the interior structure of Mars, InSight will provide the first opportunity to find the ground truth -- by literally looking below the ground.</p>.<p class="bodytext">A probe called a mole will pummel the ground, burying itself and dragging a tether behind it.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Temperature sensors embedded in this tether will measure the natural internal heat of Mars. </p>