"InSight" traveled 483 million km (300 million mi) during its journey.
(meta data) TITLE: News | NASA, ULA Launch Mission to Study How Mars Was Made Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology NASA's First Mission to Study the Interior of Mars Awaits May 5 Launch NASA's First Deep-Space CubeSats Say: 'Polo!' ## News| May 5, 2018 # NASA, ULA Launch Mission to Study How Mars Was Made NASA's Mars Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) mission is on a 300-million-mile (483-million-kilometer) trip to Mars to study for the first time what lies deep beneath the surface of the Red Planet. InSight launched at 4:05 a.m. PDT (7:05 a.m. EDT) Saturday from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. "The United States continues to lead the way to Mars with this next exciting mission to study the Red Planet's core and geological processes ," said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine. "I want to congratulate all the teams from NASA and our international partners who made this accomplishment possible. As we continue to gain momentum in our work to send astronauts back to the Moon and on to Mars, missions like InSight are going to prove invaluable." Go, Atlas. Go, Centaur. Go, InSight! NASA's InSight mission launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base for Mars on May 5, 2018-the first interplanetary launch from the West Coast. InSight is expected to land on the Red Planet on Nov. 26, 2018. More than a mission to Mars, InSight will help scientists understand the formation and early evolution of all rocky planets, including Earth. First reports indicate the United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket that carried InSight into space was seen as far south as Carlsbad, California, and as far east as Oracle, Arizona One person recorded video of the launch from a private aircraft flying along the California coast. the Centaur second stage of the rocket, the spacecraft reached orbit 13 minutes and 16 seconds after launch. Sixty-one minutes later, the Centaur ignited a second time, sending InSight on a trajectory toward the Red Planet. InSight separated from the Centaur about 9 minutes later -- 93 minutes after launch -- and contacted ground controllers via NASA's Deep Space Network at 5:41 a.m. PDT (8:41 a.m. EDT). "The Kennedy Space Center and ULA teams gave us a great ride today and started InSight on our six-and-a-half-month journey to Mars," said Tom Hoffman, InSight project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. "We've received positive indication the InSight spacecraft is in good health and we are all excited to be going to Mars once again to do groundbreaking science." its successful launch , NASA's InSight team now is focusing on the six-month voyage During the cruise phase of the mission, engineers will check out the spacecraft's subsystems and science instruments, making sure its solar arrays and antenna are oriented properly, tracking its trajectory and performing maneuvers to keep it on course. is scheduled to land on the Red Planet around 3 p.m. EST (noon PST) Nov. 26, where it will conduct science operations until Nov. 24, 2020, which equates to one year and 40 days on Mars, or nearly two Earth years. "Scientists have been dreaming about doing seismology on Mars for years. In my case, I had that dream 40 years ago as a graduate student, and now that shared dream has been lofted through the clouds and into reality," said Bruce Banerdt, InSight principal investigator at JPL. InSight lander will probe and collect data on marsquakes, heat flow from the planet's interior and the way the planet wobbles, to help scientists understand what makes Mars tick and the processes that shaped the four rocky planets of our inner solar system. "InSight will not only teach us about Mars, it will enhance our understanding of formation of other rocky worlds like Earth and the Moon, and thousands of planets around other stars," said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate at the agency headquarters in Washington. "InSight connects science and technology with a diverse team of JPL-led international and commercial partners." missions to Mars investigated the surface history of the Red Planet by examining features like canyons, volcanoes, rocks and soil, but no one has attempted to investigate the planet's earliest evolution, which can only be found by looking far below the surface. "InSight will help us unlock the mysteries of Mars in a new way, by not just studying the surface of the planet, but by looking deep inside to help us learn about the earliest building blocks of the planet ," said JPL Director Michael Watkins. manages InSight for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. InSight is part of NASA's Discovery Program, managed by the agency's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama . The InSight spacecraft, including cruise stage and lander, was built and tested by Lockheed Martin Space in Denver. NASA's Launch Services Program at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida is responsible for launch service acquisition, integration, analysis, and launch management United Launch Alliance of Centennial, Colorado, is NASA's launch service provider. number of European partners, including France's Centre National d'Études Spatiales (CNES) and the German Aerospace Center (DLR), are supporting the InSight mission. CNES provided the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS) instrument, with significant contributions from the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS) in Göttingen, Germany. DLR provided the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3) instrument. more information about InSight, and to follow along on its flight to Mars, visit: News Media Contact D.C. Agle / Andrew Good Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. 818-354-5011 agle@jpl.nasa.gov / andrew.c.good@jpl.nasa.gov Dwayne Brown / JoAnna Wendel NASA Headquarters, Washington 202-358-1726 / 358 1003 dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov / joanna.r.wendel@nasa.gov 2018-089 # Related Links For Educators Learn how to turn NASA's mission to explore the 'heart' of Mars into a Teachable Moment for students. › Teachable Moments blog › Mars Lessons # Popular Robotic Toolkit Added to NASA's Mars 2020 RoverSpace Samples Link NASA's Apollo 11 and Mars 2020New Finds for Mars Rover, Seven Years After LandingScientists Planning Now for Asteroid Flyby a Decade AwayNASA Robots Compete Underground in DARPA ChallengeNASA Invites Public to Submit Names to Fly Aboard Next Mars Rover # You Might Also Like The bit carousel, which lies at the heart of the rover's Sample Caching System, is now aboard NASA's newest rover. Robotic Toolkit Added to NASA's Mars 2020 Rover While separated by half a century, NASA's Apollo 11 and Mars 2020 missions share same historic goal: returning samples to Earth. Space Samples Link NASA's Apollo 11 and Mars 2020 The first interplanetary CubeSats were recognized by the engineering community with the 2019 Small Satellite Mission of the Year award. MarCO Wins the 'Oscar' for Tiny Spacecraft
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InSight
Abstract.

 The Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) mission is a robotic lander designed to study the deep interior of the planet Mars. It was manufactured by Lockheed Martin, is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and most of its scientific instruments were built by European agencies. The mission launched on 5 May 2018 at 11:05 UTC aboard an Atlas V-401 rocket and successfully landed at Elysium Planitia on Mars on 26 November 2018 at 19:52:59 UTC.