NASA begins testing InSight, next Mars lander, for 2016 mission

NASA has had a remarkable record when it comes to successful missions on the Red Planet, dating back to 1976 with Viking 1 and 2, Pathfinder and Sojourner in 1997, the Spirit and Opportunity rovers in 2004, and Curiosity‘s crazy ‘7 minutes of terror’ landing in 2012. Each time, the spacecraft rovers are orders of magnitude more sophisticated, and two of the last three rovers are still doing science. Now NASA’s set to do it all over again come March 2016 with the InSight spacecraft, which will launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California and land on Mars roughly six months later.
Once on the surface, the mission is scheduled to last two years — 720 days, or 700 sols — and begin delivering science data in October 2016.
“Today, our robotic scientific explorers are paving the way, making great progress on the journey to Mars,” said Jim Green, director of NASA’s Planetary Science Division at the agency’s headquarters in Washington, in a statement. “Together, humans and robotics will pioneer Mars and the solar system.”

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Great stuff!

 

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I'm all for un-manned space craft, and the advances in AI they drive.
I hope that the amount of tissue damaging radiation during the 6-month trip will be measured and honestly reported, especially from the cosmic rays, which are much more energetic than solar flares particles are.

The link in the OP says that the radiation received for seven months (6+ of space trip) will be measured this time. It does not tell anything about what has been done to help InSight survive that flux.

Unlike humans with DNA damage, which can self-amplify into cancers, etc., solid state components can be made redundant and be much more resistant to radiation damage. We have a lot of experience doing that "radiation hardening" now, but still occasionally lose a space craft during big solar flare (which is made of many magnitudes less energetic particles than many cosmic ray particles are).

Again: Not pessimism, just facts.

 

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And why wouldn't they be reported any other way but honestly?
I find your inference as highly distasteful and disturbing to say the least.
It certainly reflects on your hyper pessimistic attitude

Your opening statement infers differently.

 

It was measured and reported during Curiosity's mission. Total estimated exposure for a 180 day trip + 500 day stay + 180 day return is 1.01 sieverts based on measurements taken during Curiosity's cruise. That represents about a 5% increase in lifetime cancer risk.