NASA’s InSight lands safely on Mars after perilous 300 million mile journey and ‘seven minutes of terror’

After a 205-day journey through space that covered 300 million miles, NASA’s three legged InSight probe descended safely after a final, intricate seven minute maneuver on the red planet Mars to whoops of joy at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California and enthusiasts around the world following live, edge-of-the-seat action on social media platforms. NASA spacecraft ‘InSight’ is designed to burrow beneath the surface of Mars and crack open crucial secrets held deep inside the planet’s rose-hued atmosphere. [caption id=“attachment_5621581” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Cheers erupt at NASA California as InSight lands on Mars. AP[/caption] With Monday’s achievement, Mars has just received its newest robotic resident. It’s been a long wait for NASA’s scientists tracking InSight’s every move since it launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on 5 May. The lander touched down near Mars’ equator on the western side of a flat, smooth expanse of lava called Elysium Planitia - a plain almost as flat as a parking lot - just moments before 3 pm EST. The hugely popular InSight Twitter handle shot off the first picture of Mars within moments of touchdown and then this message too: “I feel you, #Mars – and soon I’ll know your heart. With this safe landing, I’m here. I’m home.” The InSight team has chosen a “boring” spot for the landing because they want the probe’s two primary instruments, a sensitive seismometer and an underground temperature probe to be undisturbed - to measure the tiniest fluctuations in the planet’s interior. The mission is expected to last about two Earth years. The stationary 360-kilogram lander will use its 6 feet robotic arm to place a mechanical mole and seismometer on the ground. The self-hammering mole will burrow 16 feet down to measure the planet’s internal heat, while the seismometer listens for possible quakes. No lander has dug deeper on Mars than several inches, and no seismometer has ever worked on the planet.

My first picture on #Mars! My lens cover isn’t off yet, but I just had to show you a first look at my new home. More status updates:https://t.co/tYcLE3tkkS #MarsLanding pic.twitter.com/G15bJjMYxa

— NASA InSight (@NASAInSight) November 26, 2018

Our @NASAInSight spacecraft stuck the #MarsLanding!

Its new home is Elysium Planitia, a still, flat region where it’s set to study seismic waves and heat deep below the surface of the Red Planet for a planned two-year mission. Learn more: https://t.co/fIPATUugFo pic.twitter.com/j0hXTjhV6I

— NASA (@NASA) November 26, 2018

After waiting in white-knuckle suspense for confirmation to arrive from space, flight controllers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, leaped out of their seats and erupted in screams, applause and laughter as the news came in that the three-legged InSight spacecraft had successfully touched down. People hugged, shook hands, exchanged high-fives, pumped their fists, wiped away tears and danced in the aisles. “Flawless,” declared JPL’s chief engineer, Rob Manning. “This is what we really hoped and imagined in our mind’s eye,” he said. “Sometimes things work out in your favor.” InSight’s landing and all that follows from here on is the kind of knowledge base that can change the world’s science textbooks forever. “Today, we successfully landed on Mars for the eighth time in human history,” said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine. “InSight will study the interior of Mars and will teach us valuable science as we prepare to send astronauts to the Moon and later to Mars. This accomplishment represents the ingenuity of America and our international partners, and it serves as a testament to the dedication and perseverance of our team. The best of NASA is yet to come, and it is coming soon.” A pair of mini satellites trailing InSight since their May liftoff provided practically real-time updates of the spacecraft’s supersonic descent through the reddish skies. The satellite also shot back a quick photo from Mars’ surface. The image was marred by specks of debris on the camera cover. But the quick look at the vista showed a flat surface with few if any rocks — just what scientists were hoping for. Much better pictures will arrive in the hours and days ahead. “What a relief,” Manning said. “This is really fantastic.” He added: “Wow! This never gets old.” InSight, a $1 billion international venture, reached the surface after going from 12,300 mph (19,800 kph) to zero in six minutes flat, using a parachute and braking engines. Radio signals confirming the landing took more than eight minutes to cross the nearly 100 million miles (160 million kilometers) between Mars and Earth. Viewings were held coast to coast at museums, planetariums and libraries, as well as New York’s Times Square. NASA last landed on Mars in 2012 with the Curiosity rover. “Landing on Mars is one of the hardest single jobs that people have to do in planetary exploration,” InSight’s lead scientist, Bruce Banerdt, said before Monday’s success. “It’s such a difficult thing, it’s such a dangerous thing that there’s always a fairly uncomfortably large chance that something could go wrong.” Mars has been the graveyard for a multitude of space missions. Up to now, the success rate at the red planet was only 40 percent, counting every attempted flyby, orbital flight and landing by the U.S., Russia and other countries since 1960. The U.S., however, has pulled off seven successful Mars landings in the past four decades, not counting InSight, with only one failed touchdown. No other country has managed to set and operate a spacecraft on the dusty surface. Germany is in charge of InSight’s mole, while France is in charge of the seismometer. An ecstatic Philippe Laudet, the French Space Agency’s project manager, said at JPL that now that the seismometer is on Mars, a “new adventure” is beginning. By examining the interior of Mars, scientists hope to understand how our solar system’s rocky planets formed 4.5 billion years ago and why they turned out so different — Mars cold and dry, Venus and Mercury burning hot, and Earth hospitable to life. InSight has no life-detecting capability, however. That will be left to future rovers, such as NASA’s Mars 2020 mission, which will collect rocks that will eventually be brought back to Earth and analyzed for evidence of ancient life. (With Associated Press)