PDS logoPlanetary Data System
PDS Information
Find a Node - Use these links to navigate to any of the 8 publicly accessible PDS Nodes.

This bar indicates that you are within the PDS enterprise which includes 6 science discipline nodes and 2 support nodes which are overseen by the Project Management Office at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). Each node is led by an expert in the subject discipline, supported by an advisory group of other practitioners of that discipline, and subject to selection and approval under a regular NASA Research Announcement.
Click here to return to the Photojournal Home Page Click here to view a list of Photojournal Image Galleries Photojournal_inner_header
Latest Images  |  Spacecraft & Technology  |  Animations  |  Space Images App  |  Feedback  |  Photojournal Search  

PIA22228: InSight on the Surface of Mars
 Mission:  InSight
 Product Size:  7680 x 4320 pixels (w x h)
 Produced By:  JPL
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA22228.tif (62.29 MB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA22228.jpg (3.447 MB)

Click on the image above to download a moderately sized image in JPEG format (possibly reduced in size from original)

Original Caption Released with Image:

An artist's rendition of the InSight lander operating on the surface of Mars.

InSight, short for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport, is a lander designed to give Mars its first thorough check up since it formed 4.5 billion years ago. It is scheduled to launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base on the California coast between May 5 through June 8, 2018, and land on Mars six months later, on Nov. 26, 2018.

InSight complements missions orbiting Mars and roving around on the planet's surface. The lander's science instruments look for tectonic activity and meteorite impacts on Mars, study how much heat is still flowing through the planet, and track the planet's wobble as it orbits the sun. This helps answer key questions about how the rocky planets of the solar system formed. So while InSight is a Mars mission, it's also more than a Mars mission.

Surface operations begin a minute after landing at Elysium Planitia. The lander's prime mission is one Mars year (approximately two Earth years).

JPL, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the InSight Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space, Denver, built the spacecraft. InSight is part of NASA's Discovery Program, which is managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

For more information about the mission, go to https://mars.nasa.gov/insight.

Image Credit:
NASA/JPL-Caltech

Image Addition Date:
2018-01-25