CAPE CANAVERAL, FLORIDA — Mars will be receiving another visitor from its neighboring planet
Nasa reports by the time NASA's InSight lander descends to Martian soil it will have travelled 480 million kilometers and spent six months travelling through space. The probe will land on Elysium Planitia, a plain just 600 kilometers from Curiosity's landing site located near the equator.
According to NASA, the InSight lander is packed with two cameras that will aid with navigation and an instrument deployment arm that will place research devices on the planet's surface.
It carries three main instruments: A seismometer that measures Mar's seismic waves and detects meteor impacts, a heat probe that will penetrate 5 meters into the surface of the planet to measure its heat flow and interior temperature and two antennas called RISE that will help determine the size and composition of the planet's core.
As InSight enters Mars' atmosphere it will emit radio signals subbed 'tones' these signals will be relayed to NASA by two space crafts flying behind the lander called MarCOs. The tones carry key information regarding the entry, descent and landing of the lander.
Engineers at the flight control center will be passing down a lucky jar of peanuts during the landing, a tradition that started in 1964 during the successful landing of Ranger 7 — the first space probe to successfully transmit images of the moon back to Earth
Nasa reports by the time NASA's InSight lander descends to Martian soil it will have travelled 480 million kilometers and spent six months travelling through space. The probe will land on Elysium Planitia, a plain just 600 kilometers from Curiosity's landing site located near the equator.
According to NASA, the InSight lander is packed with two cameras that will aid with navigation and an instrument deployment arm that will place research devices on the planet's surface.
It carries three main instruments: A seismometer that measures Mar's seismic waves and detects meteor impacts, a heat probe that will penetrate 5 meters into the surface of the planet to measure its heat flow and interior temperature and two antennas called RISE that will help determine the size and composition of the planet's core.
As InSight enters Mars' atmosphere it will emit radio signals subbed 'tones' these signals will be relayed to NASA by two space crafts flying behind the lander called MarCOs. The tones carry key information regarding the entry, descent and landing of the lander.
Engineers at the flight control center will be passing down a lucky jar of peanuts during the landing, a tradition that started in 1964 during the successful landing of Ranger 7 — the first space probe to successfully transmit images of the moon back to Earth
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