NASA spacecraft InSight lands on Mars after six-month journey
(NASA via The Associated Press) An image transmitted from Mars by the InSight lander is seen on a computer screen at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory Monday, Nov. 26, 2018, in Pasadena, Calif.
By Marcia Dunn | The Associated Press
· Published: November 26, 2018
Cape Canaveral, Fla. • A NASA spacecraft designed to burrow beneath the surface of Mars landed on the red planet Monday after a six-month, 300 million-mile journey and a perilous, six-minute descent through the rose-hued atmosphere.
After waiting in white-knuckle suspense for confirmation to arrive from space, flight controllers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., leaped out of their seats and erupted in screams, applause and laughter as the news came in that the three-legged InSight spacecraft had successfully touched down.
People hugged, shook hands, exchanged high-fives, pumped their fists, wiped away tears and danced in the aisles.
"Flawless," declared JPL's chief engineer, Rob Manning. "This is what we really hoped and imagined in our mind's eye. Sometimes things work out in your favor."
My first picture on #Mars! My lens cover isn't off yet, but I just had to show you a first look at my new home. More status updates:https://t.co/tYcLE3tkkS #MarsLanding pic.twitter.com/G15bJjMYxa
— NASAInSight (@NASAInSight) November 26, 2018
A pair of mini satellites trailing InSight since their May liftoff provided practically real-time updates of the spacecraft's supersonic descent through the reddish skies. The satellite also shot back a quick photo from Mars' surface.
The image was marred by specks of debris on the camera cover. But the quick look at the vista showed a flat surface with few if any rocks — just what scientists were hoping for. Much better pictures will arrive in the hours and days ahead.
"What a relief," Manning said. "This is really fantastic." He added: "Wow! This never gets old."
InSight, a $1 billion international venture, reached the surface after going from 12,300 mph to zero in six minutes flat, using a parachute and braking engines. Radio signals confirming the landing took more than eight minutes to cross the nearly 100 million miles between Mars and Earth.
Viewings were held coast to coast at museums, planetariums and libraries, as well as New York's Times Square.
NASA last landed on Mars in 2012 with the Curiosity rover.
"Landing on Mars is one of the hardest single jobs that people have to do in planetary exploration," InSight's lead scientist, Bruce Banerdt, said before Monday's success. "It's such a difficult thing, it's such a dangerous thing that there's always a fairly uncomfortably large chance that something could go wrong."
Mars has been the graveyard for a multitude of space missions. Up to now, the success rate at the red planet was only 40 percent, counting every attempted flyby, orbital flight and landing by the United States, Russia and other countries since 1960.
The U.S., however, has pulled off seven successful Mars landings in the past four decades, not counting InSight, with only one failed touchdown. No other country has managed to set and operate a spacecraft on the dusty surface.
InSight was shooting for Elysium Planitia, a plain near the Martian equator that the InSight team hopes is as flat as a parking lot in Kansas.
(Marcio Jose Sanchez | The Associated Press) People at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., celebrate as the... (NASA via The Associated Press) An image transmitted from Mars by the InSight lander is seen on a computer screen at NASA's J... (NASA/JPL-Caltech/Lockheed Martin via The Associated Press) In this 2015 photo made available by NASA, a technician prepares ... (Marcio Jose Sanchez | The Associated Press) A video feed of the InSight lander mission control room is seen at NASA's Jet Pr... (Marcio Jose Sanchez | The Associated Press) Members of the media take photos as the InSight lander prepares to land on Mars'... (Marcio Jose Sanchez | The Associated Press) A man takes pictures of a model of the CubeSat MarCO which trails the InSight la... (Bill Ingalls | NASA via The Associated Press) Tom Hoffman, InSight Project Manager, NASA JPL talks about the Mars InSight la... (Marcio Jose Sanchez | The Associated Press) Journalists gather at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory awaiting the landing of I...
(Marcio Jose Sanchez | The Associated Press) People at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., celebrate as the InSight lander touches down on Mars on Monday, Nov. 26, 2018. (NASA via The Associated Press) An image transmitted from Mars by the InSight lander is seen on a computer screen at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory Monday, Nov. 26, 2018, in Pasadena, Calif. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/Lockheed Martin via The Associated Press) In this 2015 photo made available by NASA, a technician prepares the InSight spacecraft for thermal vacuum testing in its cruise configuration for its flight to Mars, simulating the conditions of outer space at Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver. NASA's three-legged, one-armed geologist known as InSight makes its grand entrance through the rose-tinted Martian skies on Monday, Nov. 26, 2018. (Marcio Jose Sanchez | The Associated Press) A video feed of the InSight lander mission control room is seen at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory Monday, Nov. 26, 2018, in Pasadena, Calif. The NASA InSight lander arrived successfully on Mars' surface. (Marcio Jose Sanchez | The Associated Press) Members of the media take photos as the InSight lander prepares to land on Mars' surface at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory Monday, Nov. 26, 2018, in Pasadena, Calif. (Marcio Jose Sanchez | The Associated Press) A man takes pictures of a model of the CubeSat MarCO which trails the InSight lander on its mission to Mars at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory Monday, Nov. 26, 2018, in Pasadena, Calif. The technology onboard each CubeSat will provide NASA the ability to quickly transmit status information about InSight as it lands on Mars. A NASA spacecraft is just a few hours away from landing on Mars. The InSight lander is aiming for a Monday afternoon touchdown on what scientists and engineers hope will be a flat plain on the red planet. (Bill Ingalls | NASA via The Associated Press) Tom Hoffman, InSight Project Manager, NASA JPL talks about the Mars InSight landing site during a pre-landing briefing, Sunday, Nov. 25, 2018 at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. InSight, short for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport, is a Mars lander designed to study the inner space of Mars: its crust, mantle, and core. InSight is scheduled to touch down on the Red Planet on Monday, Nov. 26. (Marcio Jose Sanchez | The Associated Press) Journalists gather at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory awaiting the landing of InSight on Mars Monday, Nov. 26, 2018, in Pasadena, Calif . A NASA spacecraft is just a few hours away from landing on Mars. The InSight lander is aiming for a Monday afternoon touchdown on what scientists and engineers hope will be a flat plain on the red planet.
The stationary 800-pound lander will use its 6-foot robotic arm to place a mechanical mole and seismometer on the ground. The self-hammering mole will burrow 16 feet down to measure the planet's internal heat, while the seismometer listens for possible quakes.
No lander has dug deeper on Mars than several inches, and no seismometer has ever worked on the planet.
Germany is in charge of InSight's mole, while France is in charge of the seismometer.
An ecstatic Philippe Laudet, the French Space Agency's project manager, said at JPL that now that the seismometer is on Mars, a "new adventure" is beginning.
By examining the interior of Mars, scientists hope to understand how the solar system's rocky planets formed 4.5 billion years ago and why they turned out so different — Mars cold and dry, Venus and Mercury burning hot, and Earth hospitable to life.
InSight has no life-detecting capability, however. That will be left to future rovers, such as NASA's Mars 2020 mission, which will collect rocks that will eventually be brought back to Earth and analyzed for evidence of ancient life.
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