NASA To Land Probe On Mars Today — Here's How To Watch And What To Read
Update: NASA successfully landed the InSight lander, which sent back this image from Mars:
Previously: This afternoon, NASA will attempt to land its 11th science mission on the surface of Mars: the InSight lander. While previous NASA missions to Mars have focused on the surface of the Red Planet, if successful, InSight (Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport) will give scientists an unprecedented look into its history.
Starting at 2:00 PM EST today, NASA will be livestreaming the InSight landing on NASA TV, which you can tune into below:
If you prefer a raw stream of the event, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory — the center that designs and runs NASA's Mars missions, including InSight — will also have its own feed of the landing.
First, of course, NASA will need to land InSight. Although much lighter than 2012's successful landing of the Curiosity rover, successfully placing InSight on Mars's Elysium Planitia, a big wide-open plan on the Martian surface, will be no easy task.
The New York Times has a handy illustrated guide to the landing, but here's the short version: After spending six months in transit, the InSight lander will hit the Martian atmosphere at over 12,000 MPH, entering at just the right angle to slow the craft down — too steep of an angle and the craft will burn up upon entry, too shallow and the craft will skip off the atmosphere like a stone on a pond. Once slowed to a much more reasonable 1,000 MPH, the lander will then deploy a parachute, further slowing the craft until it reaches a mile above the Martian surface, at which point the lander will disconnect itself from the 'chute, and then guide itself onto the plain with an array of retrorockets. All of this is planned to take just six minutes, and NASA estimates that it should receive confirmation of a successful landing at 2:53 PM EST today.
Not 20 minutes after, hopefully, safely making its way onto the surface, InSight will get to work. What exactly might that be? The lander will, essentially, be listening to Mars chill out — as the planet's interior cools, it gives off small marsquakes. Here's the Verge's Loren Grush on their scientific importance:
Analyzing these Mars shakes can tell scientists what makes up the planet — the kinds of rocks that linger inside and how they're layered. That's crucial for understanding how Mars came to be. Earth has been churning and reshaping itself for billions of years, but Mars' structure has stayed relatively constant. Scientists believe that soon after Mars formed, its development stopped. So figuring out the current layout of Mars' insides means understanding what the planet's interior look liked in its youth. "We believe that when we go to Mars, we'll be able to use Mars as a window into the past," William "Bruce" Banerdt, the principal investigator for the InSight mission, tells The Verge.
