InSight

Launch: InSight launched on May 5, 2018 (4:05 a.m. PT/7:05 a.m. ET) from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California .

Mars Landing: Insight landed on November 26, 2018, at 11:52:59 a.m. PT (2:52:59 p.m. ET) , landing site Elysium Planitia, Mars .

Mission Status: Active Mission duration is a little over 1 Mars year (~2 Earth years); 709 Sols (Mars days), or 728 Earth days (November 2020).

• Formation & Evolution: Understand the formation and evolution of terrestrial planets through investigation of the interior structure and processes of Mars.

  • Determining the size, composition, and physical state (liquid/solid) of the core

  • Determining the thickness and structure of the crust

  • Determining the composition and structure of the mantle

  • Determining the thermal state of the interior

• Tectonic Activity: Determine the present level of tectonic activity and meteorite impact rate on Mars.

  • Measure the magnitude, rate, and geographical distribution of internal seismic activity

  • Measure the rate of meteorite impacts on the surface

• The InSight landing site exhibits strong daytime turbulence, being the most active site among previous and current landed missions for dust-devil-like vortices. The pattern of turbulence and calm is strongly periodic, repeating daily over the time span thus far observed. This pattern defines the low-noise windows for SEIS marsquake observations

• The time-varying magnetic fields are key to future studies of electrical conductivity structure, acting as a probe of interior temperature, mineralogy and volatile content.

• The InSight marsquake catalogue (through 30 September 2019) contains 174 events^2,4, 150 of which have a high-frequency character (with appreciable energy only above ~1 Hz) and are not yet fully understood in terms of distance and magnitude.

• No meteoroid impacts have yet been unequivocally identified, possibly due to the scattering¹ that can obscure surface waves and depth phases.

• The first results from the InSight seismometer are beginning to unveil Mars’s interior structure, rate of seismicity and locations of current tectonic activity.

• Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS) - measures marsquakes and other internal activity on Mars, and the response to meteorite impacts, to better understand the planet's history and structure

• Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP³) - includes a radiometer and a heat flow probe.The probe, referred to as a "self-hammering nail" and nicknamed "the mole", was designed to burrow 5 m (16 ft) below the Martian surface while trailing a tether with embedded heat sensors to study the thermal properties of Mars' interior, and thus reveal unique information about the planet's geologic history.

• Rotation and Interior Structure Experiment (RISE) - is a radio science experiment that uses the lander's X band radio to provide precise measurements of planetary rotation to better understand the interior of Mars

• Temperature and Winds for InSight (TWINS) - monitors weather at the landing site.

• Laser RetroReflector for InSight (LaRRI) - is a corner cube retroreflector and enables passive laser range-finding by orbiters after the lander is retired,^[73] and will function as a node in a proposed Mars geophysical network

• Instrument Deployment Arm (IDA) is a 1.8 m (5.9 ft) robotic arm that deployed the SEIS, wind and thermal shield, and HP³ instruments to Mars' surface.

• Instrument Deployment Camera (IDC) - is a color camera based on the Mars Exploration Rover and Mars Science Laboratory navcam design. It is mounted on the Instrument Deployment Arm and images the instruments on the lander's deck and provides stereoscopic views of the terrain surrounding the landing site.

• Instrument Context Camera (ICC) - is a color camera based on the MER/MSL Hazcam design. It is mounted below the lander's deck, and with its wide-angle 120° panoramic field of view provides a complementary view of the instrument deployment area.

Two nearly circular, 10-sided solar arrays, each 7.05 feet (2.15 meters) in diameter, extending from opposite sides of the lander. The two arrays combined have almost as much surface area as a pingpong table and generate up to about 600 to 700 watts on a clear Martian day (or 200 to 300 watts on a dusty one)

A pair of rechargeable, 25 amp-hour lithium-ion batteries will provide energy storage.