In hopes of better understanding the red planet, NASA is trying something it has never done before in the past: send tiny satellites into deep space.   

Sept. 2016 will mark another milestone for man's quest to studying the outer space. NASA is already prepping another Mars-landing mission, but this time the agency will be using standardized small spacecraft and off-the-shelf technologies.

Like Us on Facebook

The next red planet mission aims to examine the interior structure of Mars using NASA's Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) lander, India Today has learned.

NASA is planning on realizing the upcoming mission using two revolutionary CubeSats, a class of spacecraft that's commonly made by university students. Many of such tiny satellites have already been launched into the Earth's orbit via larger spacecraft.

The space exploration agency is optimistic that through the 2016 flyby demonstration, it can gather more data about Mars quickly because the technology they are using can readily transmit status information upon landing, NDTV reports.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., is building the twin CubeSats that constitutes a technology demonstration called Mars Cube One (MarCo).

MarCo is slated for a March 2016 launch, while the InSight lander will make a landing in September of the same year. Both technologies will be launched from the United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket.

While the InSight lander will land on Mars to make in-depth examination of the planet's interior structure, MarCo will simply fly by the red planet.

According to NASA's planetary science division director Jim Green, MarCo is by no means an auxiliary factor in the success of the mission since it is not really connected to InSight.

Green added that MarCo is only an experimental effort; hence, it will fly independently to Mars.

MarCo will primarily deploy two radio antennas and two solar panels upon its launch. If MarCo becomes a success, NASA is thinking of enabling a "bring-your-own" communications relay option for use by other Mars missions in the future.

Additionally, the entire mission is also expected to lead other explorations and interplanetary missions in the solar system, while at the same time help establish more applications of CubeSats in deep space, according to Financial Express. 

TagsNASA, outer space, Mars, Science