Prior to landing on the Red Planet, NASA discusses the engineering that went into the InSight lander. Launched on May 5, InSight marks NASA’s first Mars landing since the Curiosity rover in 2012. The landing will kick off a two-year mission in which InSight will become the first spacecraft to study Mars’ deep interior. Its data also will help scientists understand the formation of all rocky worlds, including our own.
InSight is being followed to Mars by two miniature NASA spacecraft, jointly called Mars Cube One (MarCO), the first deep-space mission for CubeSats. If MarCO makes its planned Mars flyby, it will attempt to relay data from InSight as it enters the planet’s atmosphere and lands.
InSight and MarCO flight controllers will monitor the spacecraft’s entry, descent and landing from Mission Control at JPL.
Speakers include:
- Thomas Zurbuchen, Associate Administrator
- Tom Hoffman, InSight project manager at JPL
- Stu Spath, InSight Program Manager, Lockheed Martin Science
- Rob Grover, Entry, Descent and Landing (EDL) Phase Lead for InSight, NASA-JPL
- Anne Marinan, MarCO-B Mission Manager, NASA-JPL
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