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.
Click Here: ADELAIDE CROWS 2019 MEN’S HOME GUERNSEY
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 system’s planets formed nearly 5 billion years ago and why they’re 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 Museum’s Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia.
InSight, which stands for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport, entered Mars’ atmosphere at about 12,000 mph.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, is leading the mission. The plummeting lander used a parachute and retrorockets to ease its descent onto the planet’s surface, according to NASA. It is the first mission to ever explore the planet’s deep interior.
“We’ve 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 NASA’s 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.”
Don’t expect very many early returns, however. NASA says it will take up to three months for the robotic arm to place the mission’s 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.
“It’s 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, InSight’s principal investigator. “But even after landing, we’ll need to be patient for the science to begin.”
Wish you were here! @NASAInSight sent home its first photo after #MarsLanding:
InSight’s view is a flat, smooth expanse called Elysium Planitia, but its workspace is below the surface, where it will study Mars’ deep interior. pic.twitter.com/3EU70jXQJw
— NASA (@NASA) November 26, 2018
Photo Bill Ingalls/NASA via Getty Images