Tag: InSight
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NASA scrubs ESCAPADE launch due to ‘highly elevated solar activity’
Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket designed for the NG-2 mission is pictured at sunset at Launch Complex 36, the evening of Nov. 8, 2025. The rocket will carry NASA’s ESCAPADE mission along with a payload demonstration for Viasat. Image: Adam Bernstein / Spaceflight Now Update Nov. 12, 10:40 a.m. EST (1540 UTC): NASA scrubbed the…
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MRO observes dormant InSight lander; collects data on Martian dust movements
NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) recently imaged NASA’s Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy, and Heat Transport (InSight) lander, which has been dormant on the Martian surface for two years. The new imagery highlights movements in Martian surface dust around InSight, providing planetary scientists with more information on Mars’s climate and atmospheric qualities. On Nov.…
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InSight reveals high meteoroid impact rate on Mars
Scientists have calculated the rate of meteoroid impacts on Mars using seismic measurements NASA’s retired InSight lander took during its mission. Two companion studies published on June 28, independently estimate substantially higher rates than were previously derived from images taken by spacecraft orbiting the red planet. The studies show that seismic measures promise to be…
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Through international collaboration, scientists find cause of InSight’s most powerful Marsquake
An international team of scientists has found the cause of the largest Martian seismic event, or Marsquake, observed by NASA’s Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) Mars lander. After ruling out a meteor impact, they concluded the event must have been caused by a release of stress within the planet’s crust.…
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Using data from InSight, scientists discover that Mars is rotating faster
In December 2022, NASA lost contact with its Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) Mars lander, which had been operating on the Martian surface for just over four years. In the time since InSight’s mission was declared over, scientists have continued to analyze the incredible data the lander collected and have…
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InSight’s importance: Seismic measurements, new terrain highlight ground-breaking mission
NASA’s InSight lander, formally known as the Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy, and Heat Transport mission, wrapped a four-year scientific expedition on Mars in December 2022 after the lander succumbed to low power levels. Throughout its mission, InSight studied Mars extensively, collecting a plethora of ground-breaking science on the planet’s interior and exterior geologic…
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InSight Principal Investigator talks Mars lander’s final days
On Dec. 21, 2022, NASA announced that its InSight lander mission on Mars had ended after efforts to regain contact with the spacecraft failed. InSight did not respond to communications beginning on Dec. 18, 2022. The end of the mission capped an intrepid science mission that lasted just over four years, which was two years…
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NASA calls an end to Mars InSight lander mission, with Aerojet getting in on tributes
One of the InSight lander’s last selfies was sent back from Mars in April. (NASA Photo) Four years after engineers cheered the landing of the robotic InSight spacecraft on Mars, NASA today declared an end to the $830 million quake-detecting mission. In a mission update, NASA said the control team at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory…
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InSight teams push for more science in lander’s final months, Curiosity continues trek around Gale Crater
In May 2022, members of NASA’s InSight Mars lander team announced that power levels on the lander were diminishing and that they expected the lander to become inoperative by December 2022. However, InSight’s teams want to push the lander to do as much as possible in its final months and have chosen to operate the…
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After a year filled with new missions and discoveries, Mars and its robots look ahead to 2022
After the successful launch of three new Mars missions in the summer of 2020, Mars exploration was looking to have a groundbreaking year in 2021. Astonishingly, all three missions — NASA’s Mars 2020, China’s Tianwen-1, and the United Arab Emirates’ Hope orbiter — successfully arrived at Mars in February, and have already sent back amazing…