Robot drill to join Curiosity rover on Mars in 2016

In the wake of successfully dropping the SUV-sized Curiosity rover on Mars this month, NASA will send another robot to the Red Planet in 2016 to drill into the planet's crust and, for the first time, piece together a picture of the Martian interior.

The $425 million robotic lander, named InSIGHT, will be built and operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology.

A German-built drill nicknamed "the mole" will pound 30 feet into the Martian crust to take the temperature of the planet, while a sensitive French-built seismometer will detect any Marsquakes.

By The Washington Post