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 help also 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.

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.