NASA’s InSight Spacecraft Has Touched Down on Mars

NASA - InSight Mission logo.

Nov. 26, 2018

NASA’s InSight lander will complete its seven-month journey to the Red Planet.

 InSight EDL, final approach of Mars. Image Credit: NASA

Image above: NASA's twin MarCO spacecraft are scheduled to make a flyby of Mars on Nov. 26. On Nov. 24, a wide-angle camera on MarCO-B took this picture of the Red Planet, which appears as small, grey dot in the lower left quadrant of the image. Image Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

InSight Prepares to Enter Martian Atmosphere. Animation Credit: CNES

Mission controllers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, have completed the final adjustments for landing NASA’s InSight spacecraft on Mars.

InSight atmospheric entry. Animation Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Atmospheric entry is expected around 11:47 p.m. PST (2:47 p.m. EST) and touchdown, about seven minutes later. NASA’s InSight lander has separated from the cruise stage. It is turning to orient its heat shield in preparation for the entry, descent and landing process at Mars.

MarCO CubeSats Relaying InSight Data: Image Credit: NASA

First CubeSats to deep space — Mars Cube One A and B — have begun to relay communications from the InSight spacecraft as it lands on Mars. MarCOs’ transmissions may be interrupted during the landing process, but their signals do not affect whether InSight completes its activities.

Heat shield separation. Animation Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

InSight descent on Mars. Image Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA’s InSight has begun its entry, descent and landing phase at Mars. Within seven minutes of entering the atmosphere, the spacecraft is expected to deploy its parachute, separate from its heat shield, pop out its landing legs, turn on its landing radar and start firing its retrorockets as it separates from its back shell. Touchdown is expected around 11:54 a.m. PST (2:54 p.m. EST).

 InSight Mars landing. Image Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Engineers be huddled with scientists at JPL on Nov. 26, watching with nervous anticipation for signals that InSight successfully touched down, and a few seconds after... Touchdown!

Solar panels opening.  Animation Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Image above: Mission controllers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, celebrate InSight landing mission success. Image Credit: NASA.

Mission controllers at NASA-JPL have received a signal from NASA’s InSight lander on the Mars surface via MarCO OR a beep from InSight’s X-band radio. In the coming hours, engineers will be checking on the spacecraft’s health. A post-landing news briefing expected at 2 p.m. PST (5 p.m. EST).

InSight instruments deployment

Animation above: NASA's Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) Seismic instrument deployment on the surface of Mars. Animation Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

"It's taken more than a decade to bring InSight from a concept to a spacecraft approaching Mars — and even longer since I was first inspired to try to undertake this kind of mission," said Bruce Banerdt of JPL, InSight's principal investigator. "But even after landing, we'll need to be patient for the science to begin."

It will take two to three months for InSight's robotic arm to set the mission's instruments on the surface. During that time, engineers will monitor the environment and photograph the terrain in front of the lander.

Back at JPL, the surface operations team will practice setting down the instruments. They'll use a working replica of InSight in an indoor "Mars sandbox," which will be sculpted to match the mission's actual landing site on Mars. The team will check to make sure the instruments can be deployed safely, even if there are rocks nearby or InSight lands at an angle.

NASA’s InSight landed on Mars!

Video above: NASA’s InSight mission successfully landed on Elysium Planitia, Mars, on 26 November 2018, at around 19:54 UTC (12:54 PST, 15:54 EST). The InSight lander, short for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport, is a NASA mission designed to study Mars’ interior structure.

Animation Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Once the final position of each instrument is decided, it will take several weeks to carefully lift each one and calibrate their measurements. Then the science really gets underway.

About InSight:

JPL manages InSight for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. InSight is part of NASA's Discovery Program, managed by the agency's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Lockheed Martin Space in Denver built the InSight spacecraft, including its cruise stage and lander, and supports spacecraft operations for the mission.

A number of European partners, including France's Centre National d'Études Spatiales (CNES), the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris (IPGP) and the German Aerospace Center (DLR), are supporting the InSight mission. CNES and IPGP provided the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS) instrument, with significant contributions from the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS) in Germany, the Swiss Institute of Technology (ETH) in Switzerland, Imperial College and Oxford University in the United Kingdom, and JPL. DLR provided the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3) instrument, with significant contributions from the Space Research Center (CBK) of the Polish Academy of Sciences and Astronika in Poland. Spain’s Centro de Astrobiología (CAB) supplied the wind sensors.

For more detailed information on the InSight mission, visit: https://mars.nasa.gov/insight

For more information about MarCO, visit: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/cubesat/missions/marco.php

Animations (mentioned), Images (mentioned), Video, Text, Credits: NASA/NASA TV/SciNews.

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