InSight successfully lands on Marsby Jeff Foust — November 26, 2018 Updated 3:40 p.m. Eastern with Bridenstine statement.
An illustration of NASA's InSight spacecraft after the deployment of its major instruments, a process that won't be completed until a few months after landing. Credit: NASA/JPL-CaltechPASADENA, Calif. — NASA’s InSight spacecraft successfully landed on Mars Nov. 26, completing a journey of nearly 500 million kilometers and starting a mission to study the planet’s interior.
The Lockheed Martin-built spacecraft touched down on Elysium Planitia near the Martian equator at 2:52:59 p.m. Eastern. Telemetry from the lander, relayed by a pair of cubesats called Mars Cube One (MarCO) passing by the planet, confirmed that the lander had made it safely to the surface. It transmitted an X-band “beep” seven minutes after touchdown, as planned, confirming it was operating.
“Flawless,” Rob Manning, chief engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and a veteran of previous Mars landing missions, said in NASA TV commentary shortly after the landing.
“Today, we successfully landed on Mars for the eighth time in human history,” said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine in an agency statement shortly after landing. “InSight will study the interior of Mars, and will teach us valuable science as we prepare to send astronauts to the Moon and later to Mars. This accomplishment represents the ingenuity of America and our international partners and it serves as a testament to the dedication and perseverance of our team. The best of NASA is yet to come, and it is coming soon.” Bridenstine also noted on NASA TV that Vice President Mike Pence, who was watching the landing on television, called him with congratulations shortly after touchdown.
With the landing, InSight will begin a prime mission scheduled to last two years to study the composition and structure of the planet’s interior. The spacecraft is equipped with two instruments, a seismometer and a heat flow probe, to carry out those measurements.
However, it will be several months before InSight starts collecting data from those instruments because of the time required to identify the best locations around the lander to place the instruments, and then to install them in those locations. (...)
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