Head of POLSA Grzegorz Brona: Polish Kret to land on Mars on November 26

One of the three main measurement devices of the InSight mission is Kret HP3 (Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package), the driving mechanism of which was built by the Polish company Astronika for the German Space Agency. It was built in cooperation with several companies and Polish research centres. According to POLSA, it is the first complete mechanism provided by domestic industry for such an important American mission.

"The lander InSight has been sent by NASA. Its goal is to study the surface of Mars, in particular to dig into its crust and investigate what hides a few meters below the surface of the Red Planet" - adds President of POLSA.

According to Brona, it will be the first such experiment in the history of mankind.

"We will dig into an alien planet for the first time to check its geological composition, possible tectonic movements, detect substances that will allow us to colonize Mars in the future" - he explains.

InSight is an American lander, but it carries a research instrument with a Polish driving mechanism - one of several that lave been placed on the lander. It is the mechanism that will dig into the crust of Mars, called Kret HP3. It will allow to penetrate the crust of the Red Planet.

"Interestingly, Poland specializes in systems designed to dig into other celestial bodies. A few years ago, we supplied a similar mechanism for a comet mission, and soon we will probably build similar mechanisms for a lunar mission" - Brona says.

Brona notes that Polish scientific and industrial entities specialize in a specific niche - the mechanisms for penetrating the planets of the Solar System, and InSight is the third important mission from the point of view of Polish contribution to Mars research.

"Poland has been conquering the Red Planet for several years," the head of POLSA reminds. The rover Curiosity, which operates on Mars, also has Polish parts - optical sensors associated with the study of the planet; another mission ExoMars 2016, which took off from the Earth two years ago and has already reached Mars, collects data on this planet using a camera that "was also largely built in Poland" - he adds.

According to Brona, our presence on the Red Planet serves research purposes. "We want to know what conditions prevailed on Mars in the past and what conditions prevail there now, what substances are present on this planet and in what concentrations, so that we can use these substances in the future, for example to colonize the Red Planet" - he says. "The human species will survive the next thousand years only if we colonize the Solar System, and perhaps even move on. This is a very prospective vision" - he concludes.

Mars landing of NASA`s InSight with the Polish mechanism driving into the surface of the Red Planet is one of several important events for the Polish space sector that will take place in the second half of November. The remaining events are the launch of the Polish and Finnish-Polish satellites and a satellite of the European Space Agency (ESA) with telecommunications system prepared in Poland, the test launch of a Polish prototype suborbital rocket to 15 km and diagnosis of the Polish administration`s demand for satellite data.

They will be promoted by the campaign "Poland in Space - Cosmic November" with the support of the Polish Space Agency and the Ministry of Enterprise and Technology.

The Polish Space Agency was established by the Law of 26 September 2014. As a governmental executive agency, it participates in the implementation of Poland`s strategic objectives, taking measures to increase the use of satellite systems and accelerate the development of space technologies for national administration, science, economy and defence.

PAP - Science in Poland, Magdalena Jarco

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