NASA’s insight landed on Mars on November 26, 2018, making it 7th in the series of Mars mission, to land successfully. Once it landed it immediately send back the first picture of it from the surface in order to send a confirmation that the probe did find a firm footing to land as per planning. The design of the probe had begun 7 years back and hence when it landed on Mars the control room was filled with applause and cheers.
The objective of sending this lander to Mars is to scan the rocky planets interiors and study in depth the meteorite impacts as well as the number of quakes that the planet experiences over the two years duration of the mission. This probe known as insight is sent to study the internal structure of Mars geology in details be it the core, the crust or the mantle and more.
Unlike the earlier missions, insight is more of a stationary probe and not a rover. The place where it is to begin its mission at Elysium Planitia, a massive plain that is a few hundred kilometers from the ancient Mars volcano and along the Mars equator. It is vital for the probe to stay put over the course of time as it needs this silent and still window. NASA scientists are looking forward to get the data that would help them find out more on the formation of these planets from this probe. This lander is all equipped to carry out the detailed study and includes specially designed sensors with an ability to pick up its pulse, reflexes and temperatures. Data around these aspects will help the scientists at NASA study the planets building blocks and evolution. The three scientific instruments that the Mars lander insight is carrying are –
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1. The Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS) – This instrument helps get information around seismic activity be it meteorites hitting the planet, mars-quakes or magma.
2. The Rotation and Interior Structure Experiment (RISE) – This instrument is devised for looking into the size as well as the composition of Mars core. It is also capable of measuring the angle as well as speed of Mars rotation with the help of its location and pings from Earth’s Satellites.
3. The Heat Flow and Physical Properties Probe (HP3) – This instrument has the ability to dig 4 meters deep into the mars surface in order to take data around heat signatures from its dusty surface. This data will uncover information related to Mars Future as in how fast is the core energy of it paring down.
Laser Retroreflectors – Though this is not considered as a part of the science mission of insight it will do the job of reflecting long range light signals that come in back to its source. This instrument is fitted with 8 laser reflectors on the insights top surface. The scientists are also planning to use these reflectors on earth’s laser light experiments on subjects like planetary science and astronomy.