NASA’s Mars obsession continues. The space agency this week selected a new mission set to touch down on the planet in September 2016 and investigate Mars’ core for clues on how the planet developed. The effort — called InSight — beat out two other proposals, one aimed at investigating a comet and the other to Saturn’s moon Titan.

At a projected cost of $425 million, the InSight mission is a bargain. Mars rover Curiosity cost NASA some $2.5 billion, and previous missions also proved costly. Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter came in with a $720 million price tag, and the Spirit and Opportunity rover missions have cost nearly $1 billion.

InSight’s primary goal is to understand the geology of Mars. Both the French space agency, Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales, and the German space program, CNES, will contribute instruments to the mission, which will hopefully determine Mars’ inner core structure and learn more about the activity of Mars’ tectonic plates (or lack thereof, as the NASA press release states “Mars’ crust is not divided into tectonic plates that drift like Earth’s”). Either way, hopefully Insight will clear up any disagreement once and for all.

This information may also help scientists better understand how planets form. Given that Mars is so close to Earth, the planet is a prime candidate for such research. Over the next few years, we will learn quite a bit about the Red Planet.

Many, many Mars missions

InSight joins another mission, the Mars Atmospheric and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) orbiter, which is set to reach Mars in 2014. It will take measurements of the atmosphere of Mars in attempt to understand the planet’s dramatic climate change.

This joins missions by the European Space Agency set for 2016 and 2018. The first, an orbiter, will study the atmosphere for signs active biological and geological activity, as well as test out technologies for use in future missions. The second, planned for 2018, contains two rovers again attempting to search for signs of biological and geological processes.

NASA was originally a partner in these two efforts, but pulled out due to monetary concerns. Russia’s space agency Roscosmos is now ESA’s partner, so those missions are still a go, and NASA apparently is announcing the InSight mission and another yet to be announced as replacements.

All of this adds up to a lot of focus on the Red Planet by the world’s space agencies over the next few years. It’s just too easy to get to, and if done right, cheap. Even so, not every one is satisfied with the selection of Mars. “Most of the solar system resides beyond the orbits of the asteroids. There is more to learn there about general planetary processes than on Mars … Why more Mars?” Saturn researcher Carolyn Porco told the Associated Press earlier this week. Indeed she might be right — Saturn’s moon Titan has received a good deal of attention recently for the possibility that it may harbor life itself.

Would a mission to Titan have taught us more? Possibly, but that mission would have also likely cost far more, and not made it on schedule, NASA says.