“Marsquake” technology being developed for NASA to study Martian seismic activity

Technology for detecting ''Marsquakes'' will be developed by an Imperial engineer as part of NASA's next unmanned mission to the red planet, it was announced in August 2012.

The Imperial College researcher will develop miniaturised seismometers, based on silicon-chip sensor technology, to detect Marsquakes – Martian seismic activity - on Earth's nearest neighbour as part of the ''Insight'' mission. The aim of the Insight mission is to understand the formation and evolution of rocky planets by investigating the internal structure of Mars.

Dr Tom Pike will take part in the mission to remotely explore Mars. This is the second mission that he has been involved in. In 2008, Dr Pike developed technology for holding samples of Martian soil as part of the Phoenix mission to the red planet, and helped NASA to detect water, in the form of ice, just below the surface as part of the search for evidence of past or present habitability on the planet.

Dr Pike, from department of electrical and electronic engineering at the College, says, ''In some ways the Insight mission will see history repeating itself as we will be using the same spacecraft design that we used for the Phoenix mission. However, on board will be a very different payload with instruments to help us to peer deep into the Martian interior. This could help us to understand more about the early evolution of planets like the Earth.''

The Insight mission is due to launch on March 2016 and touch down on the Mars' equator in September that year. The Lander will be equipped with a geophysics station that will be used to carry out three experiments including one for measuring the precise rotation of Mars using the spacecraft's onboard communications system.

The team will also determine the temperature inside the planet with the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package, and measure tremors below the surface with the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS) instrument package, which Dr Pike is part of an international collaboration to develop.