My first Magazine Sky & Telescope - 03.2019 | Page 10

NEWS NOTES
MISSIONS
Insight Lander Touches
Down on Mars
AFTER A SEVEN-MONTH JOURNEY
of almost 500 million km (300 mil-
lion miles) followed by just over eight
minutes of nail-biting anxiousness by
mission controllers, the Mars Insight
lander has become NASA’s eighth suc-
cessful landing on the Red Planet. The
lander touched down on November
26th at 2:52 p.m. EST in the Elysium
Planitia region of Mars, 600 km (370
miles) north of Gale Crater, the stomp-
ing grounds of NASA’s Curiosity rover.
As NASA’s fi rst dedicated geophysi-
cal mission to Mars, Insight will spend
the next two years studying the deep
interior of the planet by chronicling
“marsquakes,” geologic activity, and
heat fl ow from the core (S&T: Dec.
2018, p. 34). The lander will attempt to
address specifi c questions such as: How
similar is the interior of Mars to that
of other rocky planets? How does the
interior of the planet affect what we see
on the surface? What is the structural
thickness of the crust and the size and
density of the core?
Insight carries a host of science
instruments. A seismic experiment will
monitor for planetary rumblings and
meteorite impacts. A heat fl ow package
— known affectionately as “the mole”
— will drill 5 meters (16 feet) below the
surface as it measures heat dissipation
from the planet’s core. Radio signals
will precisely measure the minute
wobble in the rotation of Mars, building
on data provided by previous missions.
The lander also carries a weather
monitoring station, a laser retrorefl ec-
tor that future orbiters can utilize for
measuring movement of the planet’s
surface, a suite of cameras, and a
robotic deployment arm. Two small
silicon chips brought the names of more
than 2.4 million people to Mars.
Once Insight fi nishes scouting the
landing site, researchers will select a
location to deploy the surface experi-
ments. Insight will use its robotic arm
to grab and place the seismic experi-
ment and the mole on the surface. The
mole will then begin hammering away,
digging into the surface of Mars about
1 mm at a time. Insight will use these
taps to map the Martian crust directly
under the lander. The probe will also
stop every 50 cm (20 inches) during
digging to take a measurement of the
heat fl owing out of the Martian inte-
rior. This will be a slow process, as the
mole will have to pause for about four
days between drilling sessions to allow
heat from its own activity to dissipate.
p The Mars Insight lander acquired this image
of its landing site on November 26th, shortly
after touching down on the surface.
The probe will hammer at the Mar-
tian soil an estimated 5,000 to 20,000
times en route to its 5-meter target
depth. The entire digging process is
expected to take anywhere from 30 to
40 days, and the mole must achieve a
depth of at least 3 meters for good sci-
ence results.
Then, Insight must sit silent to take
delicate seismic measurements. To this
end, the lander isn’t even equipped
with a steerable radio dish or anything
that could induce vibrations in the
deployed detector. Instead, Insight has
fi xed, opposing horn antennas for com-
munication.
■ DAVID DICKINSON
In this artist's illustration,
Mars Insight sits on the
surface of the planet with
all its instruments and solar
panels deployed.
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M A RCH 2 019 • SK Y & TELESCOPE