Insight Lander Archives

February 25, 2020February 25, 2020 by Evan Gough

InSight has been Sensing Dust Devils Sweep Past its Landing Site

The InSight lander has been on the surface of Mars for about a year, and a half dozen papers were just published outlining some results from the mission. Though InSight’s primary mission is to gather evidence on the interior of Mars—InSight stands for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy, and Heat Transport—the lander also keeps track of Martian Meteorology. A new paper reports that InSight has found gravity waves, swirling dust devils, and a steady background rumble of infrasound.

February 25, 2020February 25, 2020 by Evan Gough

After a Challenging First Year on Mars, InSight Shows Us that Mars is Seismically Active

In this artist's concept of NASA's InSight lander on Mars, layers of the planet's subsurface can be seen below and dust devils can be seen in the background. Image Credit: IPGP/Nicolas Sarter

The NASA and DLR InSight lander has been on Mars for over a year now. The mission has faced significant challenges getting its HP³ (Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package) into the subsurface, but the spacecraft’s other instruments are working as intended. Now, researchers have published six papers outlining some of the mission’s scientific results.

October 28, 2019October 28, 2019 by Evan Gough

InSight’s Heat Probe Has Bounced Back Out Of Its Hole

InSight's Heat Probe (HP3) has popped out of its hole. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

This is sad news. After finding what seemed like a solution to the Mole’s difficulties on Mars, engineers are stymied again. The Mole, or Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3) has bounced half-way out of its hole.

It’s like Groundhog Day on Mars. If the Mole bounces out of its hole, it means six more weeks of engineers scratching their heads to come up with a solution.

October 18, 2019October 18, 2019 by Evan Gough

Success! NASA Confirms the Mole is Working Again.

The scoop on InSight's instrument arm exerting pressure on the Mole. This may supply the necessary friction to get the Mole going again. Image Credit: NASA/DLR

After months of setbacks, NASA says that the InSight Lander’s Mole is working again.

InSight landed on Mars on Nov. 26 2018 in Elysium Planitia. Its mission is to study the interior of the planet, to learn about how Mars and other rocky planets formed. InSight (Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy, and Heat Transport) is a NASA mission with other partners, including the DLR (German Aerospace Center.)

October 18, 2019October 18, 2019 by Evan Gough

There’s the Curiosity Rover, On the Move, Seen from Space

MSL Curiosity as imaged by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Image Credit: NASA/CalTech-JPL

If the Curiosity rover was paranoid, would it feel like it was being watched? Well, it is being watched, by its brother in orbit, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The MRO watched Curiosity as it travelled through the ‘Clay-Bearing Unit‘ in Gale Crater, during June and July, 2019.

October 15, 2019October 15, 2019 by Evan Gough

It Looks Like it’s Working! NASA InSight’s Mole is Making Progress Again Thanks to the Arm Scoop Hack

NASA and the DLR are making some progress with the Mole. The Mole has been stuck for months now, and NASA/DLR have been working to get it unstuck. After removing the mole’s housing to get a better look at it with InSight’s cameras, the team came up with a plan.

October 3, 2019October 3, 2019 by Evan Gough

Here’s NASA’s New Plan to Get InSight’s Temperature Probe Into Mars

The mole with its wiring harness, and the scoop. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The mole is still stuck.

The mole is the name given to the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3) instrument on NASA’s Mars InSight lander. It’s job is to penetrate into the Martian surface to a depth of 5 meters (16 ft) to measure how heat flows from the planet’s interior to the surface. It’s part of InSight’s mission to understand the interior structure of Mars, and how it formed.

But it’s stuck at about 35 centimers (14 inches.) The mole can do science shy of its maximum depth of 5 meters, but not this shallow. And NASA, and the DLR (German Aerospace Center) who provided the mole, have a new plan to fix it.

October 2, 2019October 2, 2019 by Evan Gough

InSight Has Already Detected 21 Marsquakes

NASA's SEIS instrument on the Martian surface. SEIS is protected by a dome. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The SEIS (Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure) instrument on NASA’s InSight lander has sensed 21 Marsquakes since it was deployed on December 19th, 2018. It actually sensed over 100 events to date, but only 21 of them have been identified as Marsquakes. SEIS is extremely sensitive so mission scientists expected these results.

SEIS is a key part of InSight, NASA’s mission to understand the interior of Mars. Along with other instruments, it’ll help scientists understand what’s going on inside Mars.

July 3, 2019July 3, 2019 by Evan Gough

NASA’s Still Trying to Get InSight’s Mole Working Again. Progress is Slow.

The Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package deployed on the Martian surface. Image Credit: NASA/DLR

The InSight lander has been on Mars for 213 Sols on its mission to understand the interior of the red planet. It’s armed with a seismometer, a temperature and wind sensor, and other instruments. But it’s primary instrument, arguably, is the Mole, or the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3.) And the Mole has been stuck for a while now.

June 14, 2019June 14, 2019 by Evan Gough

This is What the Ground Looked Like After InSight Landed on Mars

The gnarly surface of Mars, with two pits excavated by InSight's thrusters. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

When InSight landed on Mars on Nov. 26th, 2018, it deployed a parachute to slow its descent through the thin Martian atmosphere. As it approached the surface, it fired its retro rocket to slow it even more, and then gently touched down on the surface. As it did so, its retro rockets excavated two small pits in the Martian soil.