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}}| instruments_list =

factoids
acronym1	SEIS | name1 = Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure | acronym2 = HP3 | name2 = Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package | acronym3 = RISE | name3 = Rotation and Interior Structure Experiment | acronym4 = TWINS | name4 = Temperature and Winds for InSight

| insignia = InSight Mission Logo.svg| insignia_caption = InSight mission logo| insignia_size = 200px| programme = Discovery Program| previous_mission = GRAILLucy (spacecraft)>Lucy}}The Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) mission was a robotic lander designed to study the deep interior of the planet Mars.WEB,weblink InSight Mission Overview, NASA, 2012, 26 November 2018, 11 May 2020,weblink live, {{PD-notice}}NEWS, Chang, Kenneth, Mars InSight: NASA's Journey into the Red Planet's Deepest Mysteries,weblink The New York Times, 30 April 2018, 30 April 2018, 12 May 2020,weblink live, It was manufactured by Lockheed Martin Space, was managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL),WEB, InSight, Lockheed Martin, 27 January 2021, 5 February 2023,weblink and two of its three scientific instruments were built by European agencies.WEB, European Contributions to the InSight mission to Mars – Europlanet Society, europlanet-society.org, 25 November 2018, 5 February 2023,weblink The mission launched on 5 May 2018 at 11:05:01 UTC aboard an Atlas V-401 launch vehicle and successfully landedNEWS, Mars Beckons – Scientists hope to uncover some of the secrets of that distant world – and maybe some of our own.,weblink 27 November 2018, The New York Times, 28 November 2018, 28 November 2018,weblink live, at Elysium Planitia on Mars on 26 November 2018 at 19:52:59 UTC.NEWS, Chang, Kenneth, NASA's Mars InSight Landing: Back to the Red Planet Once Again – The NASA spacecraft will arrive at the red planet today and attempt to reach its surface in one piece.,weblink 26 November 2018, The New York Times, 26 November 2018, 10 March 2020,weblink live, NEWS,weblink InSight lander: Nasa probe approaches Mars – live updates, The Guardian, 26 November 2018, 26 November 2018, Gabbatt, Adam, 2 December 2018,weblink live, NEWS, Chang, Kenneth, NASA's InSight Launches for Six-Month Journey to Mars,weblink 5 May 2018, The New York Times, 5 May 2018, 4 January 2020,weblink live, WEB,weblink About InSight's Launch, Nasa's Insight Mars Lander, NASA, 8 February 2018, Gov, Mars. Nasa, 9 September 2018,weblink live, {{PD-notice}} InSight was active on Mars for {{age in sols|2018|11|26|2022|12|15}} sols ({{age in days|2018|11|26|2022|12|15}} days; {{Age in years and days|26 November 2018|15 December 2022}}).InSight{{'s}} objectives were to place a seismometer, called Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS), on the surface of Mars to measure seismic activity and provide accurate 3D models of the planet's interior; and measure internal heat transfer using a heat probe called HP3 to study Mars' early geological evolution.WEB,weblink What are InSight's Science Tools?, NASA, 25 January 2023, 3 December 2018,weblink dead, {{PD-notice}} This was intended to provide a new understanding of how the Solar System's terrestrial planets – Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars – and Earth's Moon formed and evolved.The lander was originally planned for launch in March 2016.NEWS,weblink NASA will send robot drill to Mars in 2016, The Washington Post, Brian, Vastag, 20 August 2012, 1 September 2017, 19 June 2018,weblink live, NEWS,weblink NASA's Next Mars Lander Zooms toward Launch, Scientific American, Leonard, David, 14 November 2017,weblink 14 November 2017, An instrument problem delayed the launch beyond the 2016 launch window. NASA officials rescheduled the InSight launch to May 2018 and during the wait the instrument was repaired. This increased the total cost from US$675 million to US$830 million.WEB,weblink NASA Approves 2018 Launch of Mars InSight Mission, NASA, Guy, Webster, Dwayne, Brown, Laurie, Cantillo, 2 September 2016, 8 January 2018, 30 December 2019,weblink live, *NEWS, Hotz, Robert Lee, NASA's InSight Spacecraft Lands Safely on Mars: Mars lander will probe the planet's interior following a 300-million-mile journey, The Wall Street Journal, 26 November 2018,weblink Jubilant NASA engineers cheered Monday as the US$828 million InSight lander signaled a safe landing on Mars..., 27 November 2018, 28 November 2018,weblink live, InSight successfully landed on Mars on 26 November 2018. Due to excessive dust on its solar panels preventing it from recharging, NASA put InSight in low-power mode for detecting seismic events in July 2022 and continued monitoring the lander through the operational period ending in December 2022.WEB,weblink NASA Extends Exploration for Two Planetary Science Missions, NASA, 8 January 2021, 9 January 2021, 16 January 2021,weblink live, {{PD-notice}}WEB,weblink Dusty demise for NASA Mars lander in July, power dwindling, NBC News, 18 May 2022, 18 May 2022, 23 December 2022,weblink live, On 20 December 2022, NASA announced that the InSight lander had lost communications with Earth on 15 December 2022, with the end of the mission being declared on 21 December 2022.NEWS, Chang, Kenneth, NASA's InSight Mission Dies After 4 Years of Listening for Marsquakes - After four years of making important discoveries about the interior of the red planet, the stationary lander lost power because of Martian dust covering its solar panels.,weblink 22 December 2022, The New York Times, 21 December 2022, 21 December 2022,weblink live, NEWS, Massengill, Dacia, Saying 'Farewell' to InSight Mars Lander,weblink 20 December 2022, NASA, 21 December 2022, 20 December 2022,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20221220221249weblink">weblink live,

History

Discovery Program selection

(File:PIA19666-MarsInSightLander-Assembly-20150429.jpg|thumb|upright=1.0|right|InSight comes together with the backshell and surface lander being joined, 2015.)InSight was initially known as GEMS (Geophysical Monitoring Station), but its name was changed in early 2012 following a request by NASA.NEWS,weblink JPL changes name of Mars mission proposal, Times Community News via Los Angeles Times, Jason, Wells, 28 February 2012, 25 September 2016, 3 July 2016,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20160703073001weblink">weblink live, Out of 28 proposals from 2010,WEB,weblink New NASA Mission To take First Look Deep Inside Mars, NASA, 20 August 2012, 26 August 2012,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20160604121730weblink">weblink 4 June 2016, dead, it was one of the three Discovery Program finalists receiving $3 million in May 2011 to develop a detailed concept study.WEB,weblink NASA Selects Investigations For Future Key Planetary Mission, NASA, 5 May 2011, 6 May 2011, 7 May 2011,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20110507065258weblink">weblink live, {{PD-notice}} In August 2012, InSight was selected for development and launch. Managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) with participation from scientists from several countries, the mission was cost-capped at US$425 million, not including launch vehicle funding.NEWS,weblink NASA picks project shortlist for next Discovery mission, TG Daily, Taylor, Kate, 9 May 2011, 20 May 2011, 4 September 2012,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20120904204847weblink">weblink dead, By reusing the landing system designed for the Mars Phoenix lander, which successfully landed on Mars in 2008, mission costs and risks were reduced.NEWS, Cavendish, Lee,weblink Journey to the Center of the Red Planet: NASA's InSight Lander to Reveal the Secrets Inside Mars, 25 November 2018, Space.com, 28 November 2018, 28 November 2018,weblink live,

Schedule issues

Lockheed Martin began construction of the lander on 19 May 2014,WEB,weblink Construction to Begin on 2016 NASA Mars Lander, NASA, Webster, Guy, Brown, Dwayne, Napier, Gary, 19 May 2014, 20 May 2014, 20 May 2014,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20140520215609weblink">weblink live, with general testing starting on 27 May 2015.WEB,weblink NASA Begins Testing Mars Lander for Next Mission to Red Planet, NASA, Webster, Guy, Brown, Dwayne, 27 May 2015, 28 May 2015, 31 October 2018,weblink live, A persistent vacuum leak in the CNES-supplied seismometer known as the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS) led NASA to postpone the planned launch in March 2016 to May 2018. When InSight was delayed, the rest of the spacecraft was returned to Lockheed Martin's factory in Colorado for storage, and the Atlas V launch vehicle intended to launch the spacecraft was reassigned to the WorldView-4 mission.NEWS,weblink Fate of NASA's InSight Mars mission to be decided soon, Spaceflight Now, Stephen, Clark, 5 March 2016, 9 March 2016, 16 November 2018,weblink live, On 9 March 2016, NASA officials announced that InSight would be delayed until the 2018 launch window at an estimated cost of US$150 million.NEWS,weblink InSight Mars lander escapes cancellation, aims for 2018 launch, Spaceflight Now, Stephen, Clark, 9 March 2016, 9 March 2016, 18 March 2016,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20160318001632weblink">weblink live, NEWS,weblink NASA Reschedules Mars InSight Mission for May 2018, The New York Times, Kenneth, Chang, 9 March 2016, 9 March 2016, 20 May 2019,weblink live, The spacecraft was rescheduled to launch on 5 May 2018 for a Mars landing on 26 November 2018 at 20:00 UTC. The flight plan remained unchanged with launch using an Atlas V launch vehicle from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.{{r|sfnow20160309|nytimes20160309}} NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory was tasked with redesigning and building a new vacuum enclosure for the SEIS instrument, while CNES conducted instrument integration and testing.NEWS,weblink InSight's second chance, The Space Review, Foust, Jeff, 28 March 2016, 5 April 2016, 15 June 2018,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20180615190736weblink">weblink live, WEB,weblink NASA Targets May 2018 Launch of Mars InSight Mission, NASA, 9 March 2016, 9 March 2016, 1 December 2017,weblink live, On 22 November 2017, InSight completed testing in a thermal vacuum, also known as TVAC testing, where the spacecraft is put in simulated space conditions with reduced pressure and various thermal loads.NEWS,weblink Mars InSight mission passes TVAC testing ahead of 2018 launch, NASASpaceFlight.com, Chris, Bergin, 22 November 2017, 6 January 2018, 7 September 2018,weblink live, On 23 January 2018, after a long storage, its solar panels were once again deployed and tested, and a second silicon chip containing 1.6 million names from the public was added to the lander.WEB,weblink NASA's Next Mars Lander Spreads its Solar Wings, NASA, Andrew, Good, 23 January 2018, 26 January 2018, 26 January 2021,weblink live,

Effects of Martian dust and end of operations

The InSight lander, powered by solar panels and batteries, relies on periodic wind gusts called "cleaning events" to reduce dust accumulation on the panels. Elysium Planitia, the landing site of InSight, has experienced fewer cleaning events than needed to keep the science operations powered. In February 2021, at the start of the Martian winter, InSight's solar cells were producing 27% of capacity due to a thick covering of dust on the panels. At that time NASA began the process of putting the lander into hibernation mode, shutting down data-gathering instruments on a schedule to conserve enough power to keep the lander electronics warm through the Martian winter. NASA had hoped that weather conditions would improve and allow InSight to store enough energy to come out of hibernation in July 2021.WEB,weblink NASA's Insight Mars Lander Is 'in Crisis', And Has Entered Emergency Hibernation, McFall-Johnsen, Morgan, 15 April 2021, Science Alert, 15 April 2021, 15 April 2021,weblink live, In May 2021, some generation capacity was restored by using the arm to position sand so it could blow onto the solar panels and scour them clean.WEB,weblink NASA's InSight Mars lander dumped dirt on itself on purpose 4 June 2021, 4 June 2021, 22 December 2022, 22 December 2022,weblink live, NASA determined in May 2022 that there was too much dust on the panels to continue the mission. InSight was generating only one-tenth of the power from the sunlight than it did upon arrival. They put the lander in a low-power mode in July 2022 to continue monitoring for seismic events. NASA continued to monitor InSight until the end of 2022, when the spacecraft missed two consecutive communication attempts.WEB, Dodson, Gerelle, 2022-12-21, NASA Retires InSight Mars Lander Mission After Years of Science,weblink 2022-12-22, NASA, 22 December 2022,weblink live,

Science background

(File:Apollo-PSE.jpg|thumb|upright|The Apollo 11 seismometer, 1969)

Seismic vibrations

(File:PIA25282-MarsInSightLander-InsideMars-20220517.jpg|thumb|left|250px|Inside Mars InfoGraphicMars InSight Lander (17 May 2022))Both Viking spacecraft carried seismometers mounted on their landers, and in 1976 it picked up vibrations from various operations of the lander and from the wind.JOURNAL,weblink Signatures of Internally Generated Lander Vibrations, Journal of Geophysical Research, Don L., Anderson, etal, 82, 28, 4524–4546; A–2, September 1977, 10.1029/JS082i028p04524, 1977JGR....82.4524A, 31 January 2018, 1 February 2018,weblink live, However, the Viking 1 lander's seismometer did not deploy properly and did not unlock; the locked seismometer could not operate.The Viking 2 seismometer unlocked; it operated and returned data to Earth.WEB,weblink Happy Anniversary, Viking Lander, NASA, Science@NASA, 20 July 2001, 31 January 2018, 16 May 2017,weblink live, JOURNAL,weblink Viking Seismometer Record: Data Restoration and Dust Devil Search, 44th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (2013), 2013LPI....44.1178L, November 2, 2022, Lorenz, R. D., Nakamura, Y., 2013, 1719, 1178, 12 February 2017,weblink live, One problem was accounting for other data. On Sol 80, the Viking 2 seismometer detected an event. No wind data were recorded at the same time, so it was not possible to determine whether the data indicated a seismic event or wind gust. Other lacking data would have been useful to rule out other sources of vibrations. Two other problems were the location of the lander and that a certain level of wind on Mars caused a loss of sensitivity for the Viking 2 seismometer. To overcome these and other issues, InSight had many other sensors, was placed directly on the surface, and also had a windshield.Despite the difficulties, the Viking 2 seismometer readings were used to estimate a Martian geological crust thickness between {{convert|8.7|and|11.2|mi|km|0|order=flip|abbr=on}} at the Viking 2 lander site. The Viking 2 seismometer did detect vibrations from Mars winds complementing the meteorology results.NEWS,weblink Viking 2: Second Landing on Mars, Space.com, Elizabeth, Howell, 6 December 2012, 15 November 2017, 15 November 2017,weblink live, JOURNAL, Martian wind activity detected by a seismometer at Viking lander 2 site, Geophysical Research Letters, Nakamura, Y., Anderson, D. L., 6, 6, 499–502, June 1979, 10.1029/GL006i006p00499, 1979GeoRL...6..499N,weblink 8 December 2018, 22 December 2018,weblink live, There was the aforementioned candidate for a possible marsquake, but it was not particularly definitive. The wind data did prove useful in its own right, and despite the limitations of the data, widespread and large marsquakes were not detected.JOURNAL, Viking-2 Seismometer Measurements on Mars: PDS Data Archive and Meteorological Applications, Earth and Space Science, Lorenz, Ralph D., Nakamura, Yosio, Murphy, James R., 4, 11, 681–688, November 2017, 10.1002/2017EA000306, 2017E&SS....4..681L, free, Seismometers were also left on the Moon, starting with Apollo 11 in 1969, and also by Apollo 12, 14, 15 and 16 missions and provided many insights into lunar seismology, including the discovery of moonquakes.JOURNAL, Lunar seismology – The internal structure of the moon, Journal of Geophysical Research, Goins, N.R., etal, 86, 5061–5074, June 1981, 10.1029/JB086iB06p05061, 1981JGR....86.5061G, 1721.1/52843, free, WEB, Tillman, Nora Taylor, Details of the Moon's Core Revealed by 30-year-old Data,weblink 6 January 2011, Space.com, 10 May 2022, 10 May 2022,weblink live, The Apollo seismic network, which was operated until 1977, detected at least 28 moonquakes up to 5.5 on the Richter scale.WEB,weblink Moonquakes, Science@NASA, NASA Science Mission Directorate, Trudy E., Bell, 15 March 2006, 31 January 2018, 23 February 2018,weblink live, One of the aspects of the InSight mission was to compare the Earth, Moon, and Mars seismic data.WEB,weblink Gravity Assist: Mars and InSight with Bruce Banerdt, Solar System Exploration: NASA Science, 2018-12-22, 16 January 2020,weblink live, {{blockquote|Well, seismic investigation is really the heart of this mission. Seismology is the method that we've used to gain almost everything we know, all the basic information about the interior of the Earth, and we also used it back during the Apollo era to understand and to measure sort of the properties of the inside of the moon. And so, we want to apply the same techniques but use the waves that are generated by Mars quakes, by meteorite impacts to probe deep into the interior of Mars all the way down to its core.|Gravity Assist: Mars and InSight with Bruce Banerdt (3 May 2018)WEB,weblink NASA.gov, 22 December 2018, 16 January 2020,weblink live, }}On 4 May 2022, a large marsquake, estimated at magnitude 5, was detected by the seismometer on the InSight lander.NEWS, Good, Andrew, Fox, Karen, Johnson, Alana, NASA's InSight Records Monster Quake on Mars,weblink 9 May 2022, NASA, 10 May 2022, 18 November 2022,weblink live, {{multiple images |header=Mars quake detected (4 May 2022) |direction=horizontal|align=center |width= |image1=PIA25044-MarsInSightLander-BigQuake-20220504.jpg |width1=325 |image2=PIA25180-MarsInSightLander-BigQuake-Graph-20220504.jpg |width2=250 |image3=PIA25281-MarsInSightLander-MarsQuake-20220504.webm |caption3= |width3=190 |footer= }}On 25 October 2023, scientists, helped by information from InSight, reported that the planet Mars has a radioactive magma ocean under its crust.NEWS, Andrews, Robin George, A Radioactive Sea of Magma Hides Under the Surface of Mars - The discovery helped to show why the red planet's core is not as large as earlier estimates had suggested it might be.,weblink 25 October 2023, The New York Times, live,weblink 25 October 2023, 26 October 2023,

Planetary precession

Radio Doppler measurements were taken with Viking and twenty years later with Mars Pathfinder, and in each case the axis of rotation of Mars was estimated. By combining this data, the core size was constrained, because the change in axis of rotation over 20 years allowed a precession rate and from that the planet's moment of inertia to be estimated.CONFERENCE,weblink InSight: A Geophysical Mission to a Terrestrial Planet Interior, Committee on Astrobiology and Planetary Science. 6–8 March 2013. Washington, D.C., W. Bruce, Banerdt, 7 March 2013, 2 February 2018, 15 March 2017,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20170315145741weblink">weblink live, InSight{{'s}} measurements of crust thickness, mantle viscosity, core radius and density, and seismic activity were planned to result in a three- to tenfold increase in accuracy compared to previous data.

Objectives

The InSight mission placed a single stationary lander on Mars to study its deep interior and address a fundamental issue of planetary and Solar System science: understanding the processes that shaped the rocky planets of the inner Solar System (including Earth) more than four billion years ago.WEB,weblinkweblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20120111014040weblink">weblink dead, 11 January 2012, InSight: Mission, NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 2 December 2011, (File:Terrestrial Planet Interiors (Earth, Mars and Moon) - Artist's Concept.jpg|thumb|right|Comparison of the interiors of Earth, Mars and the Moon (artist concept))InSight{{'s}} primary objective was to study the earliest evolutionary processes that shaped Mars. By studying the size, thickness, density and overall structure of Mars' core, mantle and crust, as well as the rate at which heat escapes from the planet's interior, InSight will provide a glimpse into the evolutionary processes of all of the rocky planets in the inner Solar System.JOURNAL, Panning, Mark, Lognonne, Philippe, Banerdt, Bruce, etal, Planned Products of the Mars Structure Service for the InSight Mission to Mars, Space Science Reviews, October 2017, 211, 1–4, 611–650, 10.1007/s11214-016-0317-5, 10044/1/48928,weblink 2017SSRv..211..611P, 2992209, 29 August 2019, 29 August 2019,weblink live, The rocky inner planets share a common ancestry that begins with accretion. As the body increases in size, its interior heats up and evolves to become a terrestrial planet, containing a core, mantle and crust.WEB,weblinkweblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20120303133803weblink">weblink dead, 3 March 2012, InSight: Science, NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 2 December 2011, Despite this common ancestry, each of the terrestrial planets is later shaped and molded through the poorly understood process of differentiation. InSight mission's goal was to improve the understanding of this process and, by extension, terrestrial evolution, by measuring the planetary building blocks shaped by this differentiation: a terrestrial planet's core, mantle and crust.(File:PIA22745-Mars-InSightLander-ArtistConcept-20181030.jpg|thumb|right|InSight lander on Mars (artist concept))The mission will determine if there is any seismic activity, measure the rate of heat flow from the interior, estimate the size of Mars' core and whether the core is liquid or solid.NEWS,weblink NASAs Proposed 'InSight'Lander would Peer to the Center of Mars in 2016, Universe Today, Ken, Kremer, 2 March 2012, 27 March 2012, 6 March 2012,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20120306083531weblink">weblink live, This data would be the first of its kind for Mars. It is also expected that frequent meteor airbursts (10–200 detectable events per year for InSight) will provide additional seismo-acoustic signals to probe the interior of Mars.JOURNAL, Bolide Airbursts as a Seismic Source for the 2018 Mars InSight Mission, Space Science Reviews, J., Stevanović, N.A., Teanby, J., Wookey, N., Selby, I. J., Daubar, J., Vaubaillon, R., Garcia, 1, 211, 1–4, 525–545, October 2017, 10.1007/s11214-016-0327-3, 2017SSRv..211..525S, 125102926,weblink 30 September 2019, 27 April 2019,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20190427095157weblink">weblink live, The mission's secondary objective was to conduct an in-depth study of geophysics, tectonic activity and the effect of meteorite impacts on Mars, which could provide knowledge about such processes on Earth. Measurements of crust thickness, mantle viscosity, core radius and density, and seismic activity should result in a three- to tenfold increase in accuracy compared to current data. This is the first time a robotic lander dug this deep into the martian crust.In terms of fundamental processes shaping planetary formation, it is thought that Mars contains the most in-depth and accurate historical record, because it is big enough to have undergone the earliest accretion and internal heating processes that shaped the terrestrial planets, but is small enough to have retained signs of those processes. The science phase is expected to last for two years.In March 2021, NASA reported, based on measurements of over 500 Marsquakes by the InSight lander on the planet Mars, that the core of Mars is between {{convert|1810 and 1860|km|mi|abbr=on}}, about half the size of the core of Earth, and significantly smaller than thought earlier, suggesting a core of lighter elements.NEWS, Yirka, Bob, Data from Insight reveals size of Mars's core,weblink 19 March 2021, Phys.org, 19 March 2021, 19 March 2021,weblink live,

Design

(File:InSight Lander Transparent.png|thumb|Artist's rendering of the InSight lander)The mission further develops a design based on the 2008 Phoenix Mars lander.WEB,weblink New Insight on Mars Expected From new NASA Mission, NASA, D. C., Agle, 20 August 2012, 23 August 2012, 29 June 2017,weblink live, Because InSight is powered by solar panels, it landed near the equator to enable maximum power for a projected lifetime of two years (1 Martian year). The mission includes two relay microsatellites called Mars Cube One (MarCO) that launched with InSight but were flying in formation with InSight to Mars.WEB,weblink Mars Cube One (MarCO), NASA, 8 February 2018, 13 December 2019,weblink live, Three major aspects to the InSight spacecraft are the cruise stage, the entry, descent, and landing system, and the lander.WEB,weblink Getting to Mars {{!, Spacecraft|last=mars.nasa.gov|website=NASA's InSight Mars Lander|language=en|access-date=2018-12-24|archive-date=10 December 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181210012327weblink|url-status=live}}

Overall specifications

Mass

• Total mass during cruise: {{convert|694|kg|lb|abbr=on}}
  • Lander: {{convert|358|kg|lb|abbr=on}}
  • Aeroshell: {{convert|189|kg|lb|abbr=on}} Aeroshell Diameter (backshell and heat shield) : 2.64 meters (8.67 ft)
  • Cruise stage: {{convert|79|kg|lb|abbr=on}}
  • Propellant and pressurant: {{convert|67|kg|lb|abbr=on}}
• Relay probes flew separately but they weighed {{convert|13.5|kg|lb|0|abbr=on}} each (there were 2)

Lander specifications

• Lander mass: {{convert|358|kg|lb|abbr=on}} including about 50 kg of science payload.
  • Mars weight (0.376 of Earth's):WEB,weblink How Strong is the Gravity on Mars?, 16 December 2016, 9 December 2018, 31 October 2018,weblink live, {{convert|1320|N|lbf|abbr=on}}
• About {{convert|6.0|m|ft|abbr=on}} wide with solar panels deployed.
• The science deck is about {{convert|1.56|m|ft|abbr=on}} wide and between {{convert|0.83|and|1.08|m|ft|abbr=on}} high (depending on leg compression after landing).
• The length of the robotic arm is {{convert|1.8|m|ft|abbr=on}}
• Tilt of lander at landing on Mars: 4°WEB,weblink NASA's Martian quake sensor InSight lands at slight angle, 1 December 2018, France 24, en, 2018-12-09, 9 December 2018,weblink live,

Power

(File:PIA22835-MarsProbes-SingleSolGeneratedEnergy-20181130-corrected.png|thumb|right|Comparison of single-sol energy generated by various probes on Mars. (30 November 2018))Power is generated by two round solar panels, each {{convert|2.15|m|ft|abbr=on}} in diameter when unfurled, and consisting of SolAero ZTJ triple-junction solar cells made of InGaP/InGaAs/Ge arranged on Orbital ATK UltraFlex arrays. After touchdown on the Martian surface, the arrays are deployed by opening like a folding fan.PRESS RELEASE,weblink SolAero Awarded Solar Panel Manufacturing Contract by ATK for NASA's InSight Mars Lander Mission, SolAero, 26 February 2014, 13 June 2015, 24 October 2018,weblink dead, WEB,weblink UltraFlex Solar Array Systems, Orbital ATK, 13 June 2015, 13 April 2016,weblink live,

• Rechargeable batteriesWEB,weblink NASA's InSight Mars Lander Fires up Solar Cells and Sends Selfie, Futurism.com, 21 July 2019, 30 March 2019,weblink live,
• Solar panels yielded 4.6 kilowatt-hours on Sol 1

Payload

(File:PIA17358-MarsInSightLander-20140326.jpg|thumb|right|The InSight lander with labeled instruments)(File:HP3 burrowing mechanism.gif|thumb|An animation of HP3 mole burrowing into Mars)InSight{{'s}} lander payload had a total mass of {{cvt|50|kg}}, including science instruments and support systems such as the Auxiliary Payload Sensor Suite, cameras, the instrument deployment system, and a laser retroreflector.InSight performed three major experiments using SEIS, HP3 and RISE.WEB,weblink InSight spacecraft will soon peer deep into the interior of Mars, Naone, Erica, Astronomy.com, 30 April 2018, 10 December 2018, 11 December 2018,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20181211010223weblink">weblink live, SEIS is a very sensitive seismometer, measuring vibrations; HP3 involves a burrowing probe to measure the thermal properties of the subsurface. RISE uses the radio communication equipment on the lander and on Earth to measure the overall movement of planet Mars that could reveal the size and density of its core.

• The Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS) measured marsquakes and other internal activity on Mars, and the response to meteorite impacts, to better understand the planet's history and structure.PRESS RELEASE,weblink NASA and French Space Agency Sign Agreement for Mars Mission, NASA, 10 February 2014, 11 February 2014, 4 June 2016,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20160604160943weblink">weblink live, NEWS,weblink Listening to meteorites hitting Mars will tell us what's inside, New Scientist, Boyle, Rebecca, 4 June 2015, 5 June 2015, 5 June 2015,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20150605120213weblink">weblink live, THESIS,weblink Design and development of a silicon micro-seismometer, Imperial College London, PhD, Sunil, Kumar, 1 September 2006, 15 July 2015, 10 June 2016,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20160610201351weblink">weblink live, SEIS was provided by the French Space Agency (CNES), with the participation of the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris (IPGP), the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS), Imperial College, Institut supérieur de l'aéronautique et de l'espace (ISAE) and JPL.NEWS,weblink New probe to provide InSight into Mars' interior, Ars Technica, Matthew, Francis, 21 August 2012, 21 August 2012, 15 June 2018,weblink live, CONFERENCE,weblink The GEMS (GEophysical Monitoring Station) SEISmometer, EPSC-DPS Joint Meeting 2011. 2–7 October 2011. Nantes, France., P., Lognonné, W. B., Banerdt, D., Giardini, U., Christensen, T., Pike, etal, October 2011, 2011epsc.conf.1507L, EPSC-DPS2011-1507-1, 6 September 2012, 29 July 2016,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20160729001006weblink">weblink live, The seismometer can also detect sources including atmospheric waves and tidal forces from Mars' moon Phobos.JOURNAL,weblink Planned Products of the Mars Structure Service for the InSight Mission to Mars, Space Science Reviews, Mark P., Panning, etal, 211, 1–4, 611–650, October 2017, 10.1007/s11214-016-0317-5, 2017SSRv..211..611P, 10044/1/48928, 2992209, 15 November 2017, 14 February 2019,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20190214164614weblink">weblink dead, CONFERENCE,weblink InSight – Geophysical Mission to Mars, 26th Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group Meeting. 4 October 2012. Monrovia, California., W. Bruce, Banerdt, 2012, 17 February 2014, 22 February 2014,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20140222153056weblink">weblink live, A leak in SEIS in 2016 had forced a two-year mission postponement.{{r|2nd chance}} The SEIS instrument is supported by meteorological tools including a vector magnetometer provided by UCLA that measures magnetic disturbances, air temperature, wind speed and wind direction sensors based on the Spanish/Finnish Rover Environmental Monitoring Station; and a barometer from JPL.{{r|Leonard|Banerdt20130307}}

• The Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3), provided by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) included a radiometer and a heat flow probe.{{r|octoberpres|nasapr20120820|flow|mtm}} The probe, referred to as a "self-hammering nail" and nicknamed "the mole", was designed to burrow {{convert|5|m|ft|abbr=on}} below the Martian surface while trailing a tether, with embedded heat sensors to study the thermal properties of Mars' interior, and thus reveal unique information about the planet's geologic history.{{r|octoberpres|nasapr20120820}}CONFERENCE,weblink Measuring Heat Flow on Mars: The Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package on GEMS, EPSC-DPS Joint Meeting 2011. 2–7 October 2011. Nantes, France., M., Grott, T., Spohn, W.B., Banerdt, S., Smrekar, T.L., Hudson, etal, October 2011, 2011epsc.conf..379G, EPSC-DPS2011-379-1, 6 September 2012, 13 August 2017,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20170813234447weblink">weblink live, NEWS,weblink JPL begins work on two new missions to Mars, Glendale News-Press, Tiffany, Kelly, 22 May 2013, 24 August 2015, 29 September 2020,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20200929232229weblink">weblink dead, The hammering mechanism inside the mole was designed by the Polish company Astronika and the Space Research Centre of the Polish Academy of Sciences under contract and in cooperation with DLR.NEWS,weblink Polish Kret will fly to Mars, Science in Poland, 2023-05-01, en, The tether contains precise temperature sensors every {{convert|10|cm|abbr=on}} to measure the temperature profile of the subsurface.{{r|octoberpres}}WEB,weblinkweblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20150125165340weblink">weblink dead, 25 January 2015, HP3 (Heat Flow and Physical Properties Probe), NASA, 24 August 2015,
• The Rotation and Interior Structure Experiment (RISE) led by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), was a radio science experiment that uses the lander's X band radio to provide precise measurements of planetary rotation to better understand the interior of Mars.CONFERENCE,weblink Geodesy on GEMS (GEophysical Monitoring Station), EPSC-DPS Joint Meeting 2011. 2–7 October 2011. Nantes, France., V., Dehant, W., Folkner, S., Le Maistre, P., Rosenblatt, M., Yseboodt, etal, October 2011, 2011epsc.conf.1551D, EPSC-DPS2011-1551, 6 September 2012, 4 March 2016,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20160304200517weblink">weblink live, X band radio tracking, capable of an accuracy under {{cvt|2|cm}}, builds on previous Viking program and Mars Pathfinder data.{{r|octoberpres}} The previous data allowed the core size to be estimated, but with more data from InSight, the nutation amplitude can be determined.{{r|octoberpres}} Once spin axis direction, precession, and nutation amplitudes are better understood, it should be possible to calculate the size and density of the Martian core and mantle.{{r|octoberpres}} This should increase the understanding of the formation of terrestrial planets (e.g. Earth) and rocky exoplanets.{{r|octoberpres}}
• Temperature and Winds for InSight (TWINS), fabricated by the Spanish Astrobiology Center, monitors weather at the landing site.CONFERENCE,weblink InSight Project Status, 28th Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group Meeting. 23 July 2013. Virtual meeting., W. Bruce, Banerdt, 2013, 2016-09-25,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20161222064517weblink">weblink 2016-12-22, dead, NEWS,weblink NASA's Next Mars Lander Will Peer Deep Into Red Planet's History: Here's How, Space.com, David, Leonard, 15 August 2014, 16 August 2014, 12 September 2018,weblink live,
• Laser RetroReflector for InSight (LaRRI) is a corner cube retroreflector provided by the Italian Space Agency and mounted on InSight{{'s}} top deck.CONFERENCE,weblink Lunar, Cislunar, Near/Farside Laser Retroreflectors for the Accurate: Positioning of Landers/Rovers/Hoppers/Orbiters, Commercial Georeferencing, Test of Relativistic Gravity, and Metrics of the Lunar Interior, 2017 Annual Meeting of the Lunar Exploration Analysis Group. 10–12 October 2017. Columbia, Maryland., S., Dell'Agnello, D., Currie, E., Ciocci, S., Contessa, G., Delle Monache, R., March, M., Martini, C., Mondaini, L., Porcelli, L., Salvatori, M., Tibuzzi, G., Bianco, R., Vittori, J., Chandler, T., Murphy, M., Maiello, M., Petrassi, A., Lomastro, 1, Contribution NO. 2041, October 2017, 2017LPICo2041.5070D, 5 March 2018, 2 January 2019,weblink live, CONFERENCE,weblink InSight Status Report, 32nd Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group Meeting. 6 October 2016. Virtual., W. Bruce, Banerdt, 6 October 2016, 2 February 2018, 23 December 2016,weblink live, It enables passive laser range-finding by orbiters after the lander is retired,WEB,weblink Schiaparelli science package and science investigations, European Space Agency, 19 October 2016, 2 February 2018, 23 October 2016,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20161023201805weblink">weblink live, and will function as a node in a proposed Mars geophysical network.CONFERENCE,weblink MoonLIGHT and INRRI: Status and Prospects, CSN2 Space Meeting. 20 July 2016. INFN-LNGS, Italy., Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, S., Dell'Agnello, 2016, 5 March 2018, 5 March 2018,weblink live, This device previously flew on the Schiaparelli lander as the Instrument for Landing-Roving Laser Retroreflector Investigations (INRRI), and is an aluminum dome {{convert|54|mm|in|1|abbr=on}} in diameter and {{convert|25|g|oz|1|abbr=on}} in mass featuring eight fused silica reflectors.
• Instrument Deployment Arm (IDA) is a {{cvt|1.8|m|ft}} robotic arm that deployed the SEIS, wind and thermal shield, and HP3 instruments to Mars' surface.WEB,weblink About the Lander, mars.nasa.gov, NASA's InSight Mars Lander, en, 2019-09-03, 21 May 2021,weblink live, It is a 4 DOF motorized manipulator, constructed from carbon-fiber composite tubes. Originally intended for the canceled Mars Surveyor mission, the IDA features a scoop, wax actuated grappling claw, and the IDC camera.JOURNAL, Fleischner, Richard, InSight Instrument Deployment Arm,weblink 15th European Space Mechanisms and Tribology Symposium, 2013, 718, 14, 2013ESASP.718E..14F, 1 September 2019, 19 November 2022,weblink live, AV MEDIA, 16 October 2018, Crazy Engineering: Space Claw on NASA's InSight Mars Lander, en,weblink 1 September 2019, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 14 June 2019,weblink live,
• The Instrument Deployment Camera (IDC) is a color camera based on the Mars Exploration Rover and Mars Science Laboratory navcam design. It is mounted on the Instrument Deployment Arm and images the instruments on the lander's deck and provides stereoscopic views of the terrain surrounding the landing site. It features a 45° field of view and uses a 1024 Ã— 1024 pixel CCD detector.WEB,weblink Cameras, InSight, NASA, 8 February 2018, 16 January 2023,weblink live, The IDC sensor was originally black and white for best resolution; a program was enacted that tested with a standard Hazcam and, since development deadlines and budgets were met, it was replaced with a color sensor.CONFERENCE,weblink InSight Project Status and Landing Site Selection, 29th Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group Meeting. 13–14 May 2014. Crystal City, Virginia., Matt, Golombek, W. Bruce, Banerdt, 2014, 11 April 2015, 14 July 2014,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20140714195250weblink">weblink live,
• The Instrument Context Camera (ICC) is a color camera based on the MER/MSL Hazcam design. It is mounted below the lander's deck, and with its wide-angle 120° panoramic field of view provides a complementary view of the instrument deployment area. Like the IDC, it uses a 1024 Ã— 1024 pixel CCD detector.

{{clear}}{{multiple image| align = center| total_width = 800| caption_align = center| image1 = PIA19144-MarsMission-InSight-Testing-20150304.jpgSeismic Experiment for Interior Structure>SEIS| image2 = Hp3sol10.jpg| caption2 = HP3 on the lander deck on Sol 10| image3 = InSight's HP3 instrument diagram.png| caption3 = HP3 diagram| image4 = Twinsboom.jpgTemperature and Winds for InSight>TWINS meteorological sensor| image5 = LaRRI retroreflector on InSight (PIA22206).pngRetroreflector>LaRRI, the laser retroreflector on InSight{{'s}} deck}}The two relay 6U cubesats were part of the overall InSight program, and were launched at the same time as the lander but they were attached to the centaur upper stage (InSight's second stage in the launch). They were ejected from the stage after launch and coasted to Mars independent of the main InSight cruise stage with the lander.WEB,weblink MarCO Separates from the Centaur Upper Stage – Mars InSight, blogs.nasa.gov, 5 May 2018, en-US, 2018-12-10, 9 January 2020,weblink live,

Twin Lander

JPL also built a full-scale engineering model, named ForeSight. This was used to practice instrument deployment, trial new ways to deploy the HP3 instrument, and test methods to reduce seismometer noise.WEB, mars.nasa.gov, NASA Prepares to Say 'Farewell' to InSight Spacecraft,weblink 2022-11-28, NASA's InSight Mars Lander, en, 28 November 2022,weblink live, With the mission now ended, the testbed is being scrapped and its parts will be offered to other teams such as the Mars Sample Retrieval Lander (SRL) for the Mars Sample Return campaign at JPL to be repurposed for their own needs. Anything that is not needed will go into storage. As of now, no attempt is planned to be undertaken to restore ForeSight or to send it to a museum.WEB,weblink As NASA's Mars InSight mission comes to an end, JPL engineers say farewell to its twin, Los Angeles Times, 20 December 2022, 27 December 2022, 27 December 2022,weblink live,

Journey to Mars

Launch

On 28 February 2018, InSight was shipped via C-17 cargo aircraft from the Lockheed Martin Space building in Denver to Vandenberg Air Force Base in California in order to be integrated to the launch vehicle.NEWS,weblink NASA InSight Mission to Mars Arrives at Launch Site, NASA, 28 February 2018, 5 March 2018, 2 January 2019,weblink live, The lander was launched on 5 May 2018 and arrived on Mars at approximately 19:54 UTC on 26 November 2018.File:Despegue de InSight (VAFB-20180505-PH JBS01 0012).jpg|thumb|right|The launch of the Atlas V rocket carrying InSight and MarCO from Vandenberg Space Launch Complex 3-E ]]The spacecraft was launched on 5 May 2018 at 11:05 UTC on an Atlas V 401 launch vehicle (AV-078) from Vandenberg Air Force Base Space Launch Complex 3-East. This was the first American interplanetary mission to launch from California.The launch was managed by NASA's Launch Services Program. InSight was originally scheduled for launch on 4 March 2016 on an Atlas V 401 (4 meter fairing/zero (0) solid rocket boosters/single (1) engine Centaur) from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, U.S.,WEB,weblink NASA Awards Launch Services Contract for InSight Mission, NASA, 19 December 2013, 11 January 2014, 24 February 2014,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20140224081427weblink">weblink live, but was called off in December 2015 due to a vacuum leak on the SEIS instrument.NEWS,weblink NASA calls off next Mars mission because of instrument leak, Excite News, Associated Press, 22 December 2015, 22 December 2015, 23 December 2015,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20151223065409weblink">weblink live, NEWS,weblink Leaks in Instrument Force NASA to Delay Mars Mission Until 2018, The New York Times, Chang, Kenneth, 22 December 2015, 22 December 2015, 20 May 2019,weblink live, WEB,weblink NASA Suspends 2016 Launch of InSight Mission to Mars, NASA, Brown, Dwayne, Cantillo, Laurie, Webster, Guy, Watelet, Julien, 22 December 2015, 23 December 2015, 29 May 2017,weblink live, The rescheduled launch window ran from 5 May to 8 June 2018.Major components of the launch vehicle include:

• Common Core Booster
• This launch did not use additional solid rocket boosters
• Centaur with Relay CubeSats
• InSight in a Payload fairing

The journey to Mars took 6.5 months across {{convert|301|e6mi|e6km|order=flip|abbr=unit}} for a touchdown on 26 November.{{r|NYT-20180505|insight-launch}} After a successful landing, a three-month-long deployment phase commenced as part of its two-year (a little more than one Martian year) prime mission.{{r|SurfaceOps|21Nov2018}}{{clear}}{{multiple image| align = center| total_width = 800| image1 = SLC-3 Service Tower Rolls Back for InSight.jpg| caption1 = Service tower rolls back.| image2 = InSight Prelaunch (NHQ201805050009).jpg| caption2 = Pre-launch| image3 = InSight rises above the fog (VAFB-20180505-PH CSH01 0001).jpg| caption3 = InSight heading to space}}{{multiple image|align=center|total_width=500| caption_align=center }}

Cruise

File:Animation of InSight trajectory.gif|thumb|An animation of InSight{{'s}} trajectory from 5 May 2018 to 26 November 2018:{{legend2|magenta| InSight}}{{·}}{{legend2| RoyalBlue|Earth}}{{·}}{{legend2| Lime|MarsMarsAfter its launch from Earth on 5 May in 2018, it coasted through interplanetary space for 6.5 months traveling across {{convert|301|e6mi|e6km|order=flip|abbr=unit}} for a touchdown on 26 November in that year.{{r|NYT-20180505|insight-launch}}InSight cruise stage departed Earth at a speed of {{convert|10000|km/h}}.WEB,weblink Cruise {{!, Timeline|last=mars.nasa.gov|website=NASA's InSight Mars Lander|language=en|access-date=2018-12-12|archive-date=10 December 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181210012815weblink|url-status=live}} The MarCo probes were ejected from the 2nd stage Centaur booster and traveled to Mars independent of the InSight cruise stage, but they were all launched together.{{citation needed|date=June 2020}}During the cruise to Mars, the InSight cruise stage made several course adjustments, and the first of these (TCM-1) took place on 22 May 2018. The cruise stage that carries the lander includes solar panels, antenna, star trackers, Sun sensor, inertial measurement unit among its technologies. The thrusters are actually on the InSight lander itself, but there are cutouts in the shell so the relevant rockets can vent into space.WEB,weblink Mars InSight – May 2018 – Page 36, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 13 December 2018, 17 October 2020,weblink live, The final course correction was 25 November 2018, the day before its touch down.WEB,weblink InSight tweaks trajectory to home in on Mars landing site – Spaceflight Now, Clark, Stephen, en-US, 2018-12-12, 15 January 2020,weblink live, A few hours before making contact with the Martian atmosphere, the cruise stage was jettisoned, on 26 November 2018.WEB, Stephen Clark,weblink InSight tweaks trajectory to home in on Mars landing site – Spaceflight Now, Spaceflightnow.com, 21 July 2019, 15 January 2020,weblink live,

Entry, descent, and landing

On 26 November 2018, at approximately 19:53 UTC, mission controllers received a signal via the Mars Cube One (MarCO) satellites that the spacecraft had successfully touched down at Elysium Planitia.{{r|NYT-20180505|NYT-20181126|insight-launch}} After landing, the mission took three months to deploy and commission the geophysical science instruments.{{r|SurfaceOps|21Nov2018}} It then began its mission of observing Mars, which was planned to last for two years.The spacecraft's mass that entered the atmosphere of Mars was {{convert|1340|lb|kg|0|abbr=on}}.WEB,weblink Mars Insight Mission Landing, NASA, November 2, 2022, 10 September 2019,weblink live, There were three major stages to InSight's landing:WEB,weblink Entry, Descent, and Landing {{!, Landing|last=mars.nasa.gov|website=NASA's InSight Mars Lander|language=en|access-date=2018-12-12|archive-date=10 September 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190910152713weblink|url-status=live}}

• Entry: after separating from the cruise stage the aeroshell enters the atmosphere and is subject to air and dust in the Martian atmosphere.
• Parachute descent: at a certain speed and altitude a parachute is deployed to slow the lander further.
• Rocket descent: closer to the ground the parachute is ejected and the lander uses rocket engines to slow the lander before touchdown.

Landing sequence:

• 25 November 2018, final course correction before EDL.
• 26 November 2018, Cruise stage jettisoned before entering the atmosphere.
• Several minutes later, the aeroshell containing the lander makes contact with the upper Martian atmosphere at {{cvt|12300|mph}}.
  • At this point it is {{convert|80|miles}} above Mars and in the next few minutes it lands, but undergoes many stages.
• Aeroshell is heated to {{cvt|1500|C|F}} during descent.
• At {{cvt|385|m/s}} and ~{{cvt|11100|m}} above the surface, the parachute is deployed.
• Several seconds later, the heat shield is jettisoned from the lander.
• The landing legs extended.
• Landing radar activated.
• Backshell jettisoned at a speed of about {{cvt|60|m/s}} and at {{cvt|1100|m}} altitude.
• Landing rockets turned on.
• Roughly {{cvt|50|m}} from the ground constant velocity mode is entered.
• Approaches ground at about {{cvt|5|mph}}.
• Touchdown{{mdash}}each of the three lander legs have a sensor to detect ground contact.
• Descent rockets are turned off at touchdown.
• Begin surface operations.

The lander's mass is about {{convert|358|kg|lb|abbr=on}} but on Mars, which has 0.376 of Earth's gravity, it only weighs the equivalent of a {{convert|135|kg|lb|abbr=on}} object on Earth.{{clear}}{{further|Mars atmospheric entry|Mars landing|List of artificial objects on Mars}}{{multiple image| align = center| total_width = 1000| image1 = InSight lander separating from its cruise stage PIA22828.jpg| caption1 = Illustration of the InSight cruise stage and lander separating prior to landing| image2 = Insight landing-640x350.gif| caption2 = Touchdown on Elysium Planitia (animation)| image3 = PIA22812-Mars-InSightLander-Landing-20181010.jpg| caption3 = A simulated view of NASA's InSight lander about to land on the surface of Mars}}{{Multiple image| align = center| direction = horizontal| width = 400| image1 = PIA22829 InSight's First Image from Mars, Annotated version.jpg| image2 = PIA22575 IDC Camera First Image.jpgFirst light (astronomy)>First light on the surface of Mars from the Instrument Context Camera (ICC, left) and the Instrument Deployment Camera (IDC, right)26 November 2018 (Touch down-day // Sol 0)}}{{multiple image| header = After InSight landing (14 December 2018)| align = center| direction = horizontal| width = 400| image1 = PIA23301-MarsInSightLander-PitsMadeByThrusters-20181214.jpg| caption1 = The pits made by thrusters (contrast-enhanced without color-correction)| width1 = | image2 = PIA23250-MarsinSightLander-SoilChurnedByThrusters-20181214.jpg| caption2 = The soil churned by thrusters| width2 = | footer = }}On 26 November 2018, InSight successfully touched down in Elysium Planitia.A few hours after landing, NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey orbiter relayed signals indicating that InSight{{'s}} solar panels had successfully unfurled and are generating enough electrical power to recharge its batteries daily. Odyssey also relayed a pair of images showing InSight{{'s}} landing site.NEWS,weblink InSight Is Catching Rays on Mars – NASA's InSight Mars Lander, NASA, 2018-11-27, en, 28 November 2018,weblink live, More images were acquired in stereo pairs to create 3D images, allowing InSight to find the best locations on the surface to place the heat probe and seismometer. Over the next few weeks, InSight checked health indicators and monitor both weather and temperature conditions at the landing site.WEB, Surface Operations,weblink Mars InSight Mission, NASA, 27 November 2018, 26 November 2018,weblink live,

Landing site

{{excessive gallery}}File:PIA23376-Mars-InSightLander-MRO-View-20190923.jpg|thumb|center|750px|{{center|The InSight Lander as viewed from the MRO (23 September 2019)}}]](File:PIA23140-Mars-InsightLander-Panorama-12092018.jpg|thumb|center|750px|{{center|InSight Lander – panorama (9 December 2018)}}){{multiple image| caption_align=center|direction=horizontal|align=center|header=Views from the Mars InSight lander (animated) |width= caption1=Sunrise (April 2022)image2=PIA23180 cc-Mars-InSightLander-Clouds-Animated-20190425.gifwidth2=239caption3=Sunset (April 2022)footer=}}{{multiple image| align = center| total_width = 800| image1 = USGS-Mars-MC-15-ElysiumRegion-mola.png| caption1 = InSight landing zone is in the south and west of this grid, near 4.5° North and 136° East, this is south and to the west of Elysium Mons and Eddie crater.| image3 = PIA21489 - Advance Inspection of NASA's Next Mars Landing Site.jpgMars Reconnaissance Orbiter for studying the planned Insight landing ellipse. From east to west the scale is about {{convert>100kmabbr=on}}.| image4 = PIA22878-Mars-InSightLander-FinalLocation-20181213.jpg| caption4 = InSight final landing location (red dot)(13 December 2018)}}{{multiple image| align = center| total_width = 1000| image1 = PIA22743-Mars-InSightLander-ArtistConcept-20181024.jpg| caption1 = An artist's concept depicts NASA's InSight lander after it has deployed its instruments on the Martian surface| image2 = PIA22892 Unlatching InSight's Arm.gif| caption2 = The NASA's InSight spacecraft unlatched its robotic arm on 27 November 2018, the day after it landed on Mars.| image3 = PIA22893 InSight's First View of Mars with the Cover Off.jpg#Payload>ICC; 30 November 2018)| image4 = PIA22875-InSightOnMarsSurface-ParachuteLanderHeatshield-20181211.jpg| caption4 = InSight parachute, lander, shield (11 December 2018)| image5 = PIA22875-InSightOnMarsSurface-ParachuteLanderHeatshield-20181126.jpg| caption5 = InSight parachute, lander, shield (26 November 2018)}}As InSight{{'s}} science goals are not related to any particular surface feature of Mars, potential landing sites were chosen on the basis of practicality. Candidate sites needed to be near the equator of Mars to provide sufficient sunlight for the solar panels year round, have a low elevation to allow for sufficient atmospheric braking during EDL, be flat and relatively rock-free to reduce the probability of complications during landing, and have soft enough terrain to allow the heat flow probe to penetrate well into the ground.{{citation needed|date=May 2021}}An optimal area that meets all these requirements is Elysium Planitia, so all 22 initial potential landing sites were located in this area.NEWS,weblink NASA searches for (literally) boring Mars landing site, USA Today, Vergano, Dan, 4 September 2013, 5 September 2013, 15 September 2018,weblink live, The only two other areas on the equator and at low elevation, Isidis Planitia and Valles Marineris, are too rocky. In addition, Valles Marineris has too steep a gradient to allow safe landing.WEB,weblink NASA Evaluates Four Candidate Sites for 2016 Mars Mission, NASA, 4 September 2013, 4 September 2013, 28 February 2014,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20140228154241weblink">weblink live, In September 2013, the initial 22 potential landing sites were narrowed down to four, and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter was then used to gain more information on each of the four potential sites before a final decision was made.{{r|landing}}NEWS,weblink NASA Picks Prime Target for 2016 InSight Mars Lander, NBC News, Boyle, Alan, 5 March 2015, 5 March 2015, 6 March 2015,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20150306044605weblink">weblink live, Each site consists of a landing ellipse that measures about {{convert|130|by|27|km|mi|abbr=on}}.NEWS,weblink NASA Eyeing Landing Site for 2016 Mars Mission, Space.com, Wall, Mike, 11 March 2015, 11 March 2015, 13 November 2018,weblink live, In March 2017, scientists from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory announced that the landing site had been selected. It is located in western Elysium Planitia at {{Coord|4.5|N|135.9|E|globe:mars_type:landmark|name=InSight landing site}}.CONFERENCE, Selection of the 2018 Insight Landing Site, 48th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference. 20–24 March 2017. The Woodlands, Texas., M., Golombek, D., Kipp, I. J., Daubar, D., Kass, M., Mischna, W. B., Banerdt, 1, 2017, 2017LPI....48.1515G, LPI Contribution No. 1964, id.1515, The landing site is about {{convert|600|km|mi|abbr=on}} north from where the Curiosity rover is operating in Gale Crater.WEB,weblink InSight's Landing Site: Elysium Planitia, NASA, 25 January 2018, 1 February 2018,weblink 2 January 2019, dead, On 26 November 2018, the spacecraft successfully touched down at its landing site, and in early December 2018 InSight lander and EDL components were imaged from space on the surface of Mars.WEB,weblink Mars InSight Lander Seen in First Images from Space, NASA/JPL, 2018-12-15, 15 December 2018,weblink live, The images provided precise position of the lander: {{Coord|4.5024|N|135.6234|E|globe:mars|format=dec}}.{{multiple image |header=Mars InSight Lander – Self-portraits|align=center|caption_align=center|direction=horizontal|width= |image1=PIA22876-InSight-FirstSelfie-20181211.jpg|caption1=First (11 December 2018)|width1=200|image2=PIA23203-Mars-InSightLander-2ndSelfie-20190411.jpg|caption2=Second (11 April 2019)|width2=200 |image3=PIA25287-MarsInSightLander-DustySelfie-20220424.jpg |caption3=Third (24 April 2022) |width3=190 |image4=PIA25287-MarsInSightLander-BeforeAfterDustySelfies-20220523.gif |caption4=Before/After 1223 days of dust |width4=190 |footer=}}

Surface operations

On 26 November 2018, NASA reported that the InSight lander had landed successfully on Mars. The meteorological suite (TWINS) and magnetometer were operational, and the mission took approximately three months to deploy and commission the geophysical science instruments.WEB, NASA InSight Team on Course for Mars Touchdown,weblink NASA/JPL, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 1 September 2019, 21 November 2018, 28 December 2018,weblink live, After landing, the dust was allowed to settle for a few hours, during which time the solar array motors were warmed up and then the solar panels were unfurled.WEB,weblink Mars InSight Deploys Its Solar Panels – SpaceRef, spaceref.com, 27 November 2018, 2018-12-09, 16 January 2023,weblink live, WEB,weblink Surface Operations {{!, Timeline|last=mars.nasa.gov|website=NASA's InSight Mars Lander|language=en|access-date=2018-12-09|archive-date=26 November 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181126192258weblink|url-status=live}} The lander then reported its systems' status, acquired some images, and it powered down to sleep mode for its first night on Mars. On its first sol on Mars it set a new solar power record of 4.6 kilowatt-hours generated for a single Martian day (known as a "sol").WEB,weblink NASA's InSight Lander on Mars Just Set a Solar Power Record!, Lewin, Sarah, Space.com, 2018-12-09, 2 December 2018, 5 December 2018,weblink live, This amount is enough to support operations and deploy the sensors.WEB, Lewin, Sarah,weblink NASA's InSight Lander on Mars Just Set a Solar Power Record!, Space, 30 November 2018, 21 July 2019, 24 September 2019,weblink live, {{multiple image| align = center| total_width = 800| header = InSight on the surface of Mars (6 December 2018)| image1 = PIA22871 Full View of InSight's Deck and Two Science Instruments.jpg| caption1 = Deck and science instruments| image2 = PIA22872-Mars-InSight-20121206b.jpg| caption2 = Robotic arm over Martian soil| image3 = PIA22873 Partial View of Insight's Robotic Arm and Deck.jpg| caption3 = Robotic arm and deck| image4 = PIA22736 InSight Images a Solar Panel.jpg| caption4 = One of its two solar panels| image5 = PIA22959-Mars-InSightLander-DeploysWind&ThermalShield-20190202.jpg| caption5 = Deployment of wind and thermal shield| image6 = PIA23046-Mars-InSightLander-HeatProbeDeployment-20190212.jpg| caption6 = Deployment of heat probe (HP³)| direction = | alt1 = }}{{multiple image| align = center| direction = horizontalInSight – seismometer deployed, first time onto the surface of another planet (19 December 2018)COOKLAST2=GOODTITLE=NASA'S INSIGHT PLACES FIRST INSTRUMENT ON MARSDATE=19 DECEMBER 2018NASA>ACCESS-DATE=20 DECEMBER 2018ARCHIVE-URL=HTTPS://WEB.ARCHIVE.ORG/WEB/20181220135945/HTTPS://WWW.JPL.NASA.GOV/NEWS/NEWS.PHP?FEATURE=7310, live, | total_width = 800| image1 = PIA22978-Mars-InSight-Lander-DeployingSeismometer-20181219.gif| caption1 = The seismometer deployment animation from Instrument Context Camera| image2 = PIA22977-Mars-InSight-Lander-DeployingSeismometer-IDC-20181219.gif| caption2 = The seismometer deployment animation from Instrument Deployment Camera| image3 = PIA22956-Mars-InSight-SeismometerDeployed-20181219.png| caption3 = The seismometer deployed.| image4 = PIA23177-Mars-InSightLander-Seismometer-20190423.jpg| caption4 = The wind and thermal shield deployed over seismometer (Sol 110)| image5 = PIA23043-Mars-InSightLander-Shield-FromSpace-20190204.jpg| caption5 = The lander (green) and shield (white dot) – viewed from space (4 February 2019)| alt1 = }}On 7 December 2018, InSight recorded the sounds of Martian winds with SEIS, which is able to record vibrations within human hearing range, although rather low (aka subwoofer-type sounds), and these were sent back to Earth.WEB,weblink NASA InSight Lander 'Hears' Martian Winds, Brown, Katherine, 7 December 2018, NASA, 2018-12-09, 8 December 2018,weblink live, This was the first time the sound of Mars wind was heard after two previous attempts.WEB, Mars Microphones,weblink The Planetary Society, 25 September 2020, 26 September 2020,weblink live, On 19 December 2018, the SEIS instrument was deployed onto the surface of Mars next to the lander by its robotic arm, and it was commissioned on 4 February 2019.InSight lander completes seismometer deployment on Mars. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190214061702weblink |date=14 February 2019 }} Stephen Clark, Space Flight Now. 4 February 2019. After the seismometer became fully operational, the heat probe instrument was deployed on 12 February 2019.NASA's InSight Prepares to Take Mars' Temperature. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190213180132weblink |date=13 February 2019 }} Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA. 13 February 2019.Taking Mars' Vital Signs with CCD Image Sensors {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190201013251weblink |date=1 February 2019 }}. George Leopold, EET Asia. 31 January 2019.In April 2019, NASA reported that the Mars InSight lander detected its first marsquake.NEWS, Brown, Dwayne, Johnson, Alana, Good, Andrew, NASA's InSight Detects First Likely 'Quake' on Mars,weblink 23 April 2019, NASA, 23 April 2019, 2 January 2021,weblink live, NEWS, Bartels, Meghan, Marsquake! NASA's InSight Lander Feels Its 1st Red Planet Tremor,weblink 23 April 2019, Space.com, 23 April 2019, 25 November 2019,weblink live, File:NASA-Mars-InSightLander-MarsQuake-Seismometer-AV-20190406.webm|thumb|center|600px|{{center|Mars – InSight Lander – Seismic Event ((:File:NASA-Mars-InSightLander-MarsQuake-Seismometer-AV-20190406.webm|AudioVideoFile); Sol 128; 6 April 2019)}}]]In September 2019, researchers reported that InSight uncovered unexplained magnetic pulses, and magnetic oscillations.NEWS, Andrews, Robin George, Mysterious magnetic pulses discovered on Mars - The nighttime events are among initial results from the InSight lander, which also found hints that the red planet may host a global reservoir of liquid water deep below the surface.,weblink 20 September 2019, National Geographic Society, 20 September 2019, 9 February 2021,weblink dead, On 24 February 2020, a summary of studies over the past year from InSight was presented which indicated that the planet Mars has active quakes, dust devils and magnetic pulses.NEWS, Good, Andrew, Johnson, Alana, A Year of Surprising Science From NASA's InSight Mars Mission,weblink 24 February 2020, NASA, 24 February 2020, 26 February 2020,weblink live, NEWS, Cornell University, InSight detects gravity waves, devilish dust on Mars,weblink 24 February 2020, EurekAlert!, 25 February 2020, 25 February 2020,weblink live, (File:PIA24664-MarsInSightLander-CleaningSolarPanel-20210522.webm|thumb|InSight{{'s}} robotic arm cleans dust from the solar panel.(video; 0:08; 22 May 2021))In February 2020, according to new data gathered from NASA's InSight lander, it was found that the Martian magnetic field at the landing site is about 10 times stronger than previously thought, and fluctuates rapidly.WEB,weblink Mars lander reveals new details about the Red Planet's strange magnetic field, February 2020, Elizabeth Howell 26, Space.com, 26 February 2020, en, 2020-02-28, 28 February 2020,weblink live, WEB,weblink NASA's Mars Lander finds that the Red Planet's magnetic field is really weird, Thompson, Amy, 2020-02-27, TESLARATI, en-US, 2020-02-28, 28 February 2020,weblink live, On 12 April 2021, it was reported that Insight went into emergency hibernation because its Solar panels were filled with Martian dust.WEB,weblink NASA's InSight Mars lander is about to go into hibernation. If its batteries ran out, it could die, Business Insider, 15 April 2021, 15 April 2021,weblink live, On 14 April, the lander began to transmit images after waking from hibernation.WEB,weblink NASA.gov, 27 April 2021, 27 April 2021,weblink live, On 3 May 2021, InSight used its robotic arm to trickle sand beside a solar panel. The InSight team wanted to let the sand blow away and touch the solar panels, sticking some dust particles to it, before leaving the solar panel. The sand trickle resulted in a boost in power of 30 watt-hours per sol.WEB, mars.nasa.gov, NASA's InSight Mars Lander Gets a Power Boost,weblink 2021-06-03, NASA’s Mars Exploration Program, en, 3 June 2021,weblink live, In July 2021 three papers studying Mars' interior structure were published. Seismometer data confirms that the center of Mars is molten. The crust of Mars is thinner than expected and may have two or three sub-layers.NEWS,weblink NASA's InSight Reveals the Deep Interior of Mars, 23 July 2021, 6 August 2021, 31 July 2021,weblink live, In January 2022, InSight went into safe mode due to a regional dust storm in the area, which caused a reduction in sunlight. During its time in safe mode, all but essential functions were suspended. It left safe mode on 19 January 2022 and resumed normal operations, however all science instruments were left off in the mean time.NEWS, NASA's InSight Enters Safe Mode During Regional Mars Dust Storm,weblink National Areonotics and Space Administration, January 11, 2022, 19 January 2022, 19 January 2022,weblink live, As of May 2022, Insight has recorded 1,313 Marsquakes.TWEET, 1526638685977866240, NASAJPL, @BBCAmos Hey Jonathan, the exact number of quakes detected is 1,313., 17 May 2022, The seismometer (SEIS), radio experiment (RISE) and the weather instruments (TWINS) continue to operate as the lander's Mars surface mission was extended by two years, until end of December 2022.WEB,weblink NASA InSight's 'Mole' Ends Its Journey on Mars, 14 January 2021, 15 January 2021, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 15 January 2021,weblink live, The reason the mission was retired was due to insufficient power generation on the solar panels, due to dust accumulation. NEWS, 21 December 2021, NASA Retires InSight Mars Lander Mission After Years of Science,weblink 3 April 2024, NASA,

Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package

On 28 February 2019, the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package probe (mole) started digging into the surface of Mars. The probe and its digging mole were intended to reach a maximum depth of {{convert|5|m|ft|abbr=unit}} but it only went about {{convert|0.35|m|ft|abbr=unit}}, or three-quarters of the way out of its housing structure. After many attempts, the effort was given up as a failure in January 2021.{{multiple image|align=center|direction=horizontal|header=InSight – Heat probe problem (June 2019)|total width=|image1=PIA23249-MarsInSightLander-DeployedHP3-20190212.jpg|caption1=Deploying probe |width1=112|image2=PIA23271-Mars-InSightLander-SignsOfHeatProbeShifting-20190304.jpg|caption2=Problem – signs of shifting|width2=199|image3=Insight's HP3 mole current position 5 June 2019.png |caption3=Current position|width3=116|image4=PIA23272-Mars-InSightLander-TestingSolutionsOnEarth-20190605.jpg|caption4=Testing solutions|width4=170|image5=PIA23276-Mars-InSightLander-TestingSolutionsToMoleProblemOnEarth-20190605.jpg|caption5=Possible solution|width5=200|image6=PIA23277-Mars-InSightLander-PreparingForHeatProbeSolution-20190601.gif|caption6=Prep for solution|width6=114 |image7=PIA23308-Mars-InSightLander-SavingTheMole-20190628.gif|caption7="Mole" uncovered|width7=114|footer=}}{{multiple images| align = center| direction = horizontal| total width = | header = Mars InSight Lander - Attempts to solve mole problem| image1 = PIA23379-MarsLander-InSight-HeatProbe-20191017.gif| caption1 = "Pinning" helps to bury the mole. (17 October 2019)| width1 = 210| image2 = PIA23213-Mars-InSightLander-MoleBacksOutOfHole-20191026.gif| caption2 = Mole partially backs out of the hole it made. (26 October 2019)| width2 = 200| image3 = PIA23512-Mars-InSightLander-MoleProbeTests-20191103.gif| caption3 = Mole tests (3 November 2019)| width3 = 200| image4 = D000M0449 Mars InSight Mole push.png| caption4 = Insight lander using its scoop to push on the back cap of the HP3 mole| width4 = 200| footer = }}In October 2019, the researchers at JPL concluded that the soil on Mars does not provide necessary friction for drilling, causing the mole to bounce around and form a wide pit around itself rather than dig deeper. They attempted a maneuver called {{Em|pinning}} in which they pressed the side of the scoop against the mole location to pin the side of the wall of the hole and increase friction.weblink {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191007113724weblink |date=7 October 2019}} Jet Propulsion Lab, NASA. 3 October 2019. Pinning was initially successful,WEB,weblink Mars InSight's 'Mole' Is Moving Again, NASA/JPL, 2019-10-28, 19 October 2019,weblink live, but then the mole backed out of its hole after a few weeks, suggesting the soil is accumulating below the mole.WEB,weblink Mars InSight's Mole Has Partially Backed Out of Its Hole, mars.nasa.gov, NASA's InSight Mars Lander, en, 2019-10-28, 28 October 2019,weblink live, NEWS, Kooser, Amanda, NASA InSight lander 'mole' suffers another Mars misfortune - NASA is trying to take Mars' temperature with a heat probe, but Mars isn't having it.,weblink 27 October 2019, CNET, 28 October 2019, 28 October 2019,weblink live, In February 2020, the team reevaluated the risks of pushing the scoop directly against the back cap of the mole, and determined the procedure to be acceptable.TWEET, NASAInSight, 1238497770228420608, 13 March 2020, A bit of good news from #Mars, In June 2020, the team reported that the mole was finally underground, and was being evaluated to determine if the mole was able to dig as designed.NEWS, Bartels, Meghan, The 'mole' on Mars is finally underground after a push from NASA's InSight lander,weblink 5 June 2020, Space.com, 6 June 2020, 6 June 2020,weblink live, On 9 July 2020, it was revealed that images taken on 20 June 2020 showed the mole bouncing again, indicating that it did not have sufficient friction to dig deeper. One suggested solution was to partially fill the hole with soil to increase friction.NEWS, Wall, Mike, The 'mole' on Mars from NASA's InSight lander may be stuck again,weblink 9 July 2020, Space.com, 9 July 2020, 8 July 2020,weblink live, (File:PIA24263-MarsInsightLander-Mole-FinalEfforts-20210109.gif|thumb|center|300px|Mars InSight Lander - "Mole" - Final Efforts(9 January 2021))In early 2021, the InSight team announced they would attempt to detect the arrival of the Mars 2020 mission using InSight's seismometers. Pre-landing modeling of the signals from Mars 2020's entry, descent and landing sequence suggested that the most probable source of any potential signal would be the impact of the spacecraft's cruise mass balance devices with the Martian surface, at speeds of around 4000 m/s.JOURNAL, Fernando, Benjamin, Wójcicka, Natalia, Froment, Marouchka, Maguire, Ross, Stähler, Simon C., Rolland, Lucie, Collins, Gareth S., Karatekin, Ozgur, Larmat, Carene, Sansom, Eleanor K., Teanby, Nicholas A., Listening for the Landing: Seismic Detections of Perseverance's arrival at Mars with InSight, Earth and Space Science, 2021, 8, 4, en, e2020EA001585, 10.1029/2020EA001585, 2021E&SS....801585F, 2333-5084, free, 20.500.11937/90005, free, WEB, O’Callaghan, Jonathan, NASA probe on Mars may feel the ground shake as rovers land in 2021,weblink 2021-02-11, New Scientist, en-US, 26 January 2021,weblink live, Shortly after successfully landing the Perseverance Rover, NASA announced that its landing went undetected by InSight. This helped demonstrate that Mars has a seismic efficiency of less than 3%.WEB, Department of Earth Sciences » NASA InSight team announces results from Perseverance's landing on Mars,weblink 2022-12-23, en, 23 December 2022,weblink live, By August 2020, the operations team had made some progress using the scoop to assist the mole in digging deeper into its hole, by pressing against the back. The scoop was used to fill the hole of the partially submerged mole, burying it fully for the first time. The team hoped the mole can now dig further into the surface on its own, possibly with the additional assistance of the scoop.NEWS, Spohn, Tilman, Mars InSight mission: The Mole is 'in' and the 'finishing touches' are 'in sight',weblink 10 August 2020, DLR Blog, 7 September 2020, 3 September 2020,weblink live, On 14 January 2021, the heat probe part of the mission was declared to be over, after the science team had determined that the soil properties at the landing location were incompatible with what the instrument had been designed for. The team attempted many different remedies over nearly two years to get the mole to burrow into the soil, but in the end, the attempts did not succeed. The friction between the soil and the probe was not enough for the mole to hammer itself down through the soil. Another set of attempts to get the probe deeper took place on 9 January 2021. After they proved unsuccessful, the decision was made to leave the probe as is and end attempts to dig deeper. The mole did, with all the assisting measures, burrow itself completely underground. The top of the mole is 2 to 3 centimetres below the Martian surface. To be able to produce the intended scientific measurements, the mole needed to have dug itself at least 3 metres deep. Thus the mole was unsuccessful at producing its intended scientific results.However the mole's operations did produce useful and interesting results about the soil at the InSight site; about conducting excavation, or drilling, on Mars; and about operating the lander's robotic arm through the mole-rescue efforts that used the arm in ways that were unplanned before the mission.

MarCO spacecraft

{{multiple image |align=right |direction=vertical|total_width=175 }}The Mars Cube One (MarCO) spacecraft are a pair of 6U CubeSats that piggybacked with the InSight mission to test CubeSat navigation and endurance in deep space, and to help relay real-time communications (with an eight-minute lightspeed delay) during the probe's entry, descent and landing (EDL) phase.NEWS,weblink NASA Wants New Rocket Rides for Tiny CubeSats, Space.com, Wall, Mike, 12 May 2015, 13 May 2015, 15 June 2018,weblink live, NEWS,weblink NASA seeks launchers for smallest satellites, Florida Today, Dean, James, 16 May 2015, 16 May 2015, 5 September 2015,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20150905164710weblink">weblink live, The two 6U CubeSats, named MarCO A and B, are identical.NEWS,weblink CubeSats to the Rescue?, Smithsonian Air & Space, Schulze-Makuch, Dirk, 9 June 2015, 9 June 2015, 30 June 2017,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20170630045941weblink">weblink live, They were launched along with InSight, but separated soon after reaching space,WEB,weblink JPL {{!, Cubesat {{!}} MarCO|website=www.jpl.nasa.gov|access-date=2018-12-09|archive-date=13 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191213053038weblink|url-status=live}} and they flew as a pair for redundancy while flanking the lander. They did not enter orbit, but flew past Mars during the EDL phase of the mission and relayed InSight{{'s}} telemetry in real time.NEWS,weblink Two Tiny 'CubeSats' Will Watch 2016 Mars Landing, Space.com, Messier, Douglas, 27 May 2015, 27 May 2015, 16 November 2018,weblink live, BOOK,weblink Mars Cube One (MarCO) – The First Planetary CubeSat Mission, NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Asmar, Sami, Matousek, Steve, 20 November 2014, 27 May 2015,weblink 25 January 2017, dead, The success of the MarCO spacecraft proved the viability of the cubesat platform for deep space missions and helped serve as a technical demonstration for potential future missions of a similar nature. On 5 February 2019, NASA reported that the CubeSats went silent, and are unlikely to be heard from again.WEB, Good, Andrew, Wendel, JoAnna, Beyond Mars, the Mini MarCO Spacecraft Fall Silent,weblink 5 February 2019, NASA, 5 February 2019, 8 January 2020,weblink live,

• Mass: {{convert|13.5|kg|lb|0|abbr=on}} each.
• Dimensions: {{convert|30|x|20|x|10|cm|abbr=on}} each
• Each has a reflectarray high gain antenna
• Miniaturized radio operating in UHF (receive only) and X-band (receive and transmit).
• They carry a miniature wide-angle camera.NASA's first image of Mars from a CubeSat {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181128210723weblink |date=28 November 2018 }}. Science Daily. 22 October 2018.
• Cold gas thrusters for attitude adjustments.VACCO – CubeSat Propulsion Systems {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180830181655weblink |date=30 August 2018 }}. VACCO. 2017.
• Star tracker for navigation.MarCO – Mars Cube One {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210511073615weblink |date=11 May 2021 }}. Slide presentation. NASA/JPL. 28 September 2016.

Team and participation

(File:NASA-TeamCheers-InSight-LandsOnThePlanetMars-20181126.jpg|thumb|right|NASA team cheers as the InSight Lander touches down on Mars. (26 November 2018))The InSight science and engineering team includes scientists and engineers from many disciplines, countries and organizations. The science team assigned to InSight includes scientists from institutions in the U.S., France, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Japan, Switzerland, Spain, Poland and the United Kingdom.Mars Exploration Rover project scientist W. Bruce Banerdt is the principal investigator for the InSight mission and the lead scientist for the SEIS instrument.WEB,weblink JPL Science: People – Bruce Banerdt, NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 2 December 2011, 25 May 2018,weblink live, Suzanne Smrekar, whose research focuses on the thermal evolution of planets and who has done extensive testing and development on instruments designed to measure the thermal properties and heat flow on other planets,WEB,weblink JPL Sciences: People – Sue Smrekar, NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 2 December 2011, 25 May 2018,weblink live, is the lead for InSight{{'s}} HP3 instrument. The Principal Investigator for RISE is William Folkner at JPL.Mars InSight Landing Press Kit {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181212023013weblink |date=12 December 2018 }}. (PDF) NASA. Published: November 2018. The SEIS InstrumentPI is Philippe Lognonné of IPGP, and the HP3 Instrument PI is Tilman Spohn of the DLR Institute of Planetary Research. The InSight mission team also includes project manager Tom Hoffman and deputy project manager Henry Stone.WEB,weblinkweblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20120303133758weblink">weblink dead, 3 March 2012, InSight: People, NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 2 December 2011, Major contributing agencies and institutions are:{{div col}}

• National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
• Centre National d'Études Spatiales (CNES)
• German Aerospace Center (DLR)
• Italian Space Agency (ASI)
• Jet Propulsion Laboratory (NASA/JPL)
• Lockheed Martin
• Paris Institute of Earth Physics (IPGP)
• Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETHZ)
• Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS)
• Imperial College London
• Institut supérieur de l'aéronautique et de l'espace (ISAE-SUPAERO)
• University of Oxford
• Spanish Astrobiology Center (CAB)
• Space Research Centre of Polish Academy of Sciences (CBK)

{{div col end}}(File:Insight team at jpl-br2 (1).jpg|thumb|550px|center|InSight team at JPL)

Name chips

As part of its public outreach, NASA organized a program where members of the public were able to have their names sent to Mars aboard InSight. Due to its launch delay, two rounds of sign-ups were conducted totaling 2.4 million names:NEWS,weblink NASA probe to carry over 2.4 million names to Mars, New Atlas, David, Szondy, 6 November 2017, 8 January 2018, 27 November 2018,weblink live, NEWS,weblink Today's the last day to get your boarding pass to Mars, CNN, Cassandra, Santiago, Saeed, Ahmed, 1 November 2017, 8 January 2018, 18 September 2018,weblink live, 826,923 names were registered in 2015WEB,weblink Names Chip Placed on InSight Lander Deck, NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 17 December 2015, 4 March 2018, 9 July 2017,weblink live, and a further 1.6 million names were added in 2017.WEB,weblink Second Names Chip is Placed on InSight, NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 24 January 2018, 4 March 2018, 5 May 2018,weblink live, An electron beam was used to etch letters only {{frac|1|1000}} the width of a human hair (1 μm)WEB,weblink Names-to-Mars Chip for InSight Spacecraft, NASA Science Mars Exploration Program, 5 June 2020, 5 June 2020,weblink live, onto {{convert|8|mm|in|1|abbr=on}} silicon wafers. The first chip was installed on the lander in November 2015 and the second on 23 January 2018.{{multiple image |header=Name chips on InSight |align=center |width= |image1=PIA22540 InSight Camera Calibration Target, Laser Retroreflector, and Microchip.jpg|caption1=One name chip installed |width1=215|image2=PIA20164insightnamechip.jpg|width2=240|caption2=The first name chip for InSight |image3=PIA22236insightsecondchip.jpg|width3=200|caption3=The second name chip, inscribed with 1.6 million names, is placed on InSight in January 2018.|image4=Marsinsightdec72018idc.png|caption4=Name chips on Mars|width4=160}}

Gallery

PIA20278insightcausa.jpg|InSight lander loaded on a Boeing C-17 Globemaster III (December 2015)PIA22232insightlandingonmars.jpg|InSight landing zone target with other NASA landing zonesElysium Planitia labelled view.jpg|Global view of Mars. InSight landed in Elysium Plantia. Curiosity rover is in Gale crater.InSight Profile of InSight entry, descent and landing events.jpg|Entry, Descent, and Landing sequence for InSightPIA23278-Mars-InSightLanderTestSandbox-ActorBradPitt-20190906.jpg|Actor Brad Pitt visits the InSight test "sandbox" (September 2019).PIA23349-Mars-InSightLander-RollingStonesRock-20181126.jpg|"Rolling Stones Rock"a result from the landing(November 2018){{multiple image |align=center|total_width=500 }}

Context map

{{Features and artificial objects on Mars}}

See also

• {{annotated link|Exploration of Mars}}
• {{annotated link|List of missions to Mars}}

References

External links

{{Commons category}}

• InSight NASA – InSight Mission
• InSight NASA â€“ InSight Raw Images
• InSight NASA – (video/03:31; 18 November 2018; Details)
• InSight NASA – (video/01:38; 26 November 2018; Landing)
• InSight NASA – (video/01:39; 1 December 2018; Wind Sounds)
• InSight NASA – (video/02:48; 19 July 2019; MarsQuakes)
• Mars Weather: InSight

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