Sky & Telescope - March 2019 - 8

NEWS NOTES
MISSIONS

Insight Lander Touches
Down on Mars
AFTER A SEVEN-MONTH JOURNEY

of almost 500 million km (300 million miles) followed by just over eight
minutes of nail-biting anxiousness by
mission controllers, the Mars Insight
lander has become NASA's eighth successful landing on the Red Planet. The
lander touched down on November
26th at 2:52 p.m. EST in the Elysium
Planitia region of Mars, 600 km (370
miles) north of Gale Crater, the stomping grounds of NASA's Curiosity rover.
As NASA's ﬁrst dedicated geophysical mission to Mars, Insight will spend
the next two years studying the deep
interior of the planet by chronicling
"marsquakes," geologic activity, and
heat ﬂow from the core (S&T: Dec.
2018, p. 34). The lander will attempt to
address speciﬁc questions such as: How
similar is the interior of Mars to that
of other rocky planets? How does the
interior of the planet affect what we see
on the surface? What is the structural
thickness of the crust and the size and
density of the core?
Insight carries a host of science
instruments. A seismic experiment will
monitor for planetary rumblings and

meteorite impacts. A heat ﬂow package
- known affectionately as "the mole"
- will drill 5 meters (16 feet) below the
surface as it measures heat dissipation
from the planet's core. Radio signals
will precisely measure the minute
wobble in the rotation of Mars, building
on data provided by previous missions.
The lander also carries a weather
monitoring station, a laser retroreﬂector that future orbiters can utilize for
measuring movement of the planet's
surface, a suite of cameras, and a
robotic deployment arm. Two small
silicon chips brought the names of more
than 2.4 million people to Mars.
Once Insight ﬁnishes scouting the
landing site, researchers will select a
location to deploy the surface experiments. Insight will use its robotic arm
to grab and place the seismic experiment and the mole on the surface. The
mole will then begin hammering away,
digging into the surface of Mars about
1 mm at a time. Insight will use these
taps to map the Martian crust directly
under the lander. The probe will also
stop every 50 cm (20 inches) during
digging to take a measurement of the
heat ﬂowing out of the Martian interior. This will be a slow process, as the
mole will have to pause for about four
days between drilling sessions to allow
heat from its own activity to dissipate.

p The Mars Insight lander acquired this image
of its landing site on November 26th, shortly
after touching down on the surface.

The probe will hammer at the Martian soil an estimated 5,000 to 20,000
times en route to its 5-meter target
depth. The entire digging process is
expected to take anywhere from 30 to
40 days, and the mole must achieve a
depth of at least 3 meters for good science results.
Then, Insight must sit silent to take
delicate seismic measurements. To this
end, the lander isn't even equipped
with a steerable radio dish or anything
that could induce vibrations in the
deployed detector. Instead, Insight has
ﬁ xed, opposing horn antennas for communication.
■ DAVID DICKINSON

N ASA / JPL- CA LTECH (2)

In this artist's illustration,
Mars Insight sits on the
surface of the planet with
all its instruments and solar
panels deployed.

8

M A RCH 2 019 * SK Y & TELESCOPE
Sky & Telescope - March 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Sky & Telescope - March 2019
