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NASA's InSight Successfully Lands on Mars (theverge.com)

Posted by msmash on from the moving-humanity-forward dept.

NASA's latest Mars lander, InSight, successfully touched down on the surface of the Red Planet moments ago, surviving an intense plunge through the Martian atmosphere. From a report: It marks the eighth picture-perfect landing on Mars for NASA, adding to the space agency's impressive track record of putting spacecraft on the planet. And now, InSight's two-year mission has begun, one that entails listening for Marsquakes to learn about the world's interior. After six and a half months of traveling through space, InSight hit the top of Mars' atmosphere a little before 3PM ET. It then made a daring descent to the surface, performing a complex multi-step routine that slowed the lander from more than 12,000 miles per hour to just 5 miles per hour before it hit the ground. To get to the surface safely, InSight had to autonomously deploy a supersonic parachute, gather radar measurements, and ignite its thrusters all at the right time. Altogether, the landing took just under seven minutes to complete, prompting the nickname "seven minutes of terror." "InSight's view is a flat, smooth expanse called Elysium Planitia, but its workspace is below the surface, where it will study Mars' deep interior," Nasa posted Monday, sharing the first photo after the landing.

1 of 175 comments (clear)

  1. Most important mission in years? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I'd say this has to be one of the most important missions in years in terms of space research.
    This will open the doors to future Mars missions by showing the internal geometry of the planet, potentially leading to liquid water, caves for future colonies and underground chemistry.
    Equally the Risk Assessment of space impacts to know for sure just how frequent they are.
    But as a bonus, also a test of deep-launch cubesats, which can be used to help massively improve the Deep Space Network as well as do experiments around lesser bodies like asteroids since they are so disposable with their cheap(er) development prices.

    I can only hope it doesn't go awry. It'll be crushing. Probably worse so than the Beagle2 failure.