NASA and the National Center of Space Studies of France (CNES) will work together on a mission to Mars, just two years after the U.S. withdrew from a partnership with Europe to send a probe and lander to the Red Planet.
The project has been called the Interior Exploration Using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport, or InSight for short. The goal of the project is to send an unmanned lander to study the deep interior of Mars, according to AFP.
The agreement was reached and then signed by NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and President of the National Center of Space Studies of France (CNES) Jean-Yves Le Gall at the Mandarin Hotel in Washington.
"The research generated by this collaborative mission will give our agencies more information about the early formation of Mars, which will help us understand more about how Earth evolved," said Bolden, according to AFP.
The lander will launch in March 2016 and should arrive on the Red Planet around September 2016.
NASA's current Mars rovers, Curiosity and Opportunity, are currently looking for water and indications that the planet was once habitable. Opportunity recently marked its 10th year on the Red Planet, whereas Curiosity landed back in 2012.
The InSight mission will help NASA go beyond the surface however.
The lander will be able to provide information about Mars and how it first formed. It should also provide some clues as to how meteorite and "tectonic activity" impacts the planet, according to AFP.
The German Aerospace Center, Swiss Space Office, and United Kingdom Space Agency will also be helping with the project.
NASA halted a partnership with Europe on a project named ExoMars due to "budget constraints," according to AFP.
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