NASAs InSight Spacecraft Successfully Lands On Mars

The InSight lander launched May 5 out of California and has traveled about 300 million miles to Mars. It landed around 3 p.m. EST Monday. WASHINGTON DC Mars just got a visit from another NASA spacecraft. The InSight lander which launched May 5 out of California traveled about 300 million miles to Mars and successfully landed around 3 p.m. EST Monday. You can watch the event in its entirety on Patch. Scientists and engineers hope the $1 billion expedition will shed some light on how Earth came to be. The 800-pound lander which is stationary will use a 6-foot long robotic arm to to place a mechanical mole and seismometer on the ground according to The Associated Press. The mole will then hammer 16 feet into the ground to take Mars internal temperature. Meanwhile the seismometer will listen for any seismic activity. Researchers hope 3D pictures will show how the solar systems planets formed nearly 5 billion years ago and why theyre so dissimilar. Viewing parties have been held across the globe AP reported including the massive NASDAQ screen in Times Square and the National Air and Space Museums Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly Virginia. InSight which stands for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations Geodesy and Heat Transport entered Mars atmosphere at about 12000 mph. NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena California is leading the mission. The plummeting lander used a parachute and retrorockets to ease its descent onto the planets surface according to NASA. It is the first mission to ever explore the planets deep interior. Weve studied Mars from orbit and from the surface since 1965 learning about its weather atmosphere geology and surface chemistry said Lori Glaze acting director of the Planetary Science Division in NASAs Science Mission Directorate. Now we finally will explore inside Mars and deepen our understanding of our terrestrial neighbor as NASA prepares to send human explorers deeper into the solar system. Dont expect very many early returns however. NASA says it will take up to three months for the robotic arm to place the missions instruments on the surface. As that process happens engineers will watch the surrounding environment and take pictures of the terrain in front of the lander. Its taken more than a decade to bring InSight from a concept to a spacecraft approaching Mars and even longer since I was first inspired to try to undertake this kind of mission said Bruce Banerdt of JPL InSights principal investigator. But even after landing well need to be patient for the science to begin.