Investigating the Red Planet’s Interior Structure

The Mars Insight Lander touched down on Mars at around noon Pacific (3 p.m. Eastern) on Nov. 26, 2018. The lander plunged through the thin Martian atmosphere, heatshield first, and use a parachute to slow down. Then, it fired its retro rockets to slowly descend to the surface of Mars, and land on the smooth plains of Elysium Planitia

InSight, short for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport, is a Mars lander designed to give the Red Planet its first thorough checkup since it formed 4.5 billion years ago. It is the first outer space robotic explorer to study in-depth the “inner space” of Mars: its crust, mantle, and core.

Studying Mars’ interior structure answers key questions about the early formation of rocky planets in our inner solar system – Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars – more than 4 billion years ago, as well as rocky exoplanets. InSight also measures tectonic activity and meteorite impacts on Mars today.