Tag Archives: InSight

InSight: Building a Mars Rock Garden

Posted on December 18, 2018 by rburnham

NASA’s InSight lander is due to set its first science instrument on Mars in the coming days. But engineers here on Earth already saw it happen — last week. Like NASA’s Curiosity rover, InSight has a full-scale working model at … Continue reading →

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HiRISE: InSight lander on Mars

Posted on December 13, 2018 by rburnham

This is a HiRISE image of the NASA InSight lander, plus other pieces of hardware on Mars after its successful landing on 26 November 2018.It looks like the heat shield (upper right) has its dark outside facing down, since it … Continue reading →

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InSight: First selfie

Posted on December 12, 2018 by rburnham

NASA’s InSight lander isn’t camera-shy. The spacecraft used a camera on its robotic arm to take its first selfie – a mosaic made up of 11 images. This is the same imaging process used by NASA’s Curiosity rover mission, in … Continue reading →

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InSight: Listening to the wind on Mars

Posted on December 7, 2018 by rburnham

NASA’s Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) lander, which touched down on Mars just 10 days ago, has provided the first ever “sounds” of Martian winds on the Red Planet. A media teleconference about these sounds … Continue reading →

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InSight: Solar panel deployed, more to come —

Posted on December 7, 2018 by rburnham

Sol 10, December 7, 2018. InSight is continuing to set up shop on Elysium Planitia; the Instrument Deployment Camera (IDC) is recording the steps as the spacecraft unpacks after the trip from Earth. Each IDC image has a field of … Continue reading →

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InSight: Flexing the arm

Posted on December 6, 2018 by rburnham

New images from NASA’s Mars InSight lander show its robotic arm is ready to do some lifting. With a reach of nearly 6 feet (2 meters), the arm will be used to pick up science instruments from the lander’s deck, … Continue reading →

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InSight: New home ‘a large sandbox’

Posted on December 1, 2018 by rburnham

With InSight safely on the surface of Mars, the mission team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, is busy learning more about the spacecraft’s landing site. They knew when InSight landed on Nov. 26 that the spacecraft had … Continue reading →

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InSight is catching rays on Mars

Posted on November 27, 2018 by rburnham

NASA’s InSight has sent signals to Earth indicating that its solar panels are open and collecting sunlight on the Martian surface. NASA’s Mars Odyssey orbiter relayed the signals, which were received on Earth at about 5:30 p.m. PST (8:30 p.m. … Continue reading →

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Task done, InSight’s MarCO says Farewell to Mars

Posted on November 27, 2018 by rburnham

[Ed. note: For more on this image and the role played by the MarCO CubeSats, see here.] MarCO-B, one of the experimental Mars Cube One (MarCO) CubeSats, took this image of Mars from about 4,700 miles (6,000 kilometers) away during … Continue reading →

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InSight: Top deck view from the IDC

Posted on November 27, 2018 by rburnham

Sol 0, November 26, 2018. The lander’s Instrument Deployment Camera (IDC) snaps a view of the top deck. Unlike the Instrument Context Camera, which is mounted on the lander body, this camera is on the instrument arm. Each IDC image … Continue reading →

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