NASA’s Insight lander is now on its way to Mars, where it’ll land in November 2018 for a unique mission: study the interior of the Red Planet. Hopefully, it’ll glean new insights into what Mars might been like when it was younger, and give us an idea of how other rocky planets might have formed.
The lander was originally scheduled to launch in 2016, but was delayed until May 2018. Once it lands, it will measure marsquakes — rumblings in the planet’s crust caused by contractions as the planet cools. This data will tell us quite a bit more about the composition of the planet, and could give us a good idea of what the planet might have looked like when it was younger.
It’s accompanied by a pair of small satellites — MarCO-A and MarCO-B — which will serve as an experimental communications-relay network for InSight when it lands later this year. They’ll attempt to send information to NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which is already in orbit around the planet, which in turn will relay the information to Earth.
NASA’s InSight spacecraft successfully lands after ‘seven minutes of terror
That’s eight Mars landings and counting for NASA
Watch NASA engineers track the harrowing landing of a spacecraft on Mars today
A lot of people and spacecraft will be watching
NASA’s InSight lander has just six and a half minutes to land on Mars in one piece
Going from more than 12,000 miles per hour to zero without breaking apart
NASA’s InSight lander successfully takes off on its way to Mars
Plus, two interplanetary CubeSats are going along for the ride
Why NASA is launching a spacecraft to Mars to feel the planet as it rumbles
InSight is getting details on the Red Planet’s insides
I flew with the next NASA spacecraft that will land on Mars
How to get a lander from Colorado to California
Mar 9, 2016Loren Grush and Sean O'Kane
NASA officially delays its next mission to Mars until 2018
It's not dead yet
InSight lander: NASA returns to Mars in 2016 for geologic discovery
NASA is readying the InSight lander for launch in 2016 that will measure geologic data from below the surface of Mars so that scientists can better understand the origins of our solar system's planets.
