The Mars sensor inspired by lobsters and cathedrals

The next robotic mission to Mars will be carrying a UK-built device not much bigger - and much lighter - than a £1 coin.

The micro-seismometer to be carried by the Mars InSight mission, set to launch in 2016, is the pride and joy of Prof Tom Pike, of Imperial College London.

Sat in his small, campus office, he puts on some purple latex gloves and picks up an example of the seismometer from a Petri dish.

He urges me to listen - so I can hear it quietly ringing as it oscillates in his hand. It's made of silicon, like microchips, but it's a mechanical, not an electrical device, hewn from a single silicon crystal and able to detect the tiniest movements.