Page 32 - Engineering Career Guide for UT Austin

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A CLOSER LOOK AT MARS
A rover delves deep into the red planet to learn about the past.
In November 2018, the InSight Lander, operated by NASA and built by scientists in the U.S., France, and Germany, touched down on Mars. Unlike the Rovers Oppor-
tunity and Curiosity that amble across the planet’s surface in search of interesting rocks, InSight was created to sit still and listen. The objective is to determine what Mars
is made of and how it has changed since its formation more than four billion years ago.
Scientists believe that, early on, Mars may have looked a lot like Earth. Magnetization in ancient rocks suggests
it had a global magnetic field like that of Earth, powered by a churning mantle, and beneath that, a metallic core. The field would have protected the planet from radiation, allowing it to maintain an atmosphere much thicker than the one that exists now and enabling water to pool on Mars’s surface. In fact, satellite images show the outlines