NASA’s InSight lands on Mars

The InSight lander, NASA’s latest foray to the red planet, has landed.

Cheers erupted at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., which operates the spacecraft, when InSight sent back acknowledgment of its safe arrival on Mars. That was the end of a journey of more than six months and 300 million miles.

In the months ahead, InSight will begin its study of the Martian underworld, with the aim of helping scientists understand how the planet formed, lessons that could also help shed light on Earth’s origins. It will listen for tremors — marsquakes — and collect data that will be pieced together in a map of the interior of the red planet.

InSight landed at Elysium Planitia, near the equator in the northern hemisphere.

Mission scientists have described the region as resembling a parking lot or “Kansas without the corn.”

That is intentional. Because the mission is not interested in rocky terrain or pretty sunsets, planners chose the flattest, safest place that the spacecraft could land.

The main scientific part of the mission will not begin for some time. During its first five to six weeks on the ground, InSight’s managers will largely be checking the health of the spacecraft, including its robotic arm.

After that, the arm will lift the spacecraft’s seismometer dome off the main deck of the lander and place it on the ground. A burrowing heat probe will be deployed after that and take about 40 days to reach its final depth of 16 feet.

InSight’s primary mission on the surface is to last nearly two years.

When the research efforts get underway, it will attempt to answer a variety of questions: How often does the ground shake with marsquakes? Just how big is the molten core within Mars? How thick is the crust? How much heat is flowing up from the decay of radioactive elements at the planet’s core?

InSight is carrying two main instruments: a dome-shape package containing seismometers and a heat probe that is to burrow about 16 feet down. NASA has spent $814 million on InSight. In addition, France and Germany invested $180 million to build these main instruments.

The seismometers, which are designed to measure surface movements less than the width of a hydrogen atom, will produce what are essentially sonograms of the planet’s insides. In particular, scientists are looking to record at least 10 to 12 marsquakes over two years.