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INSIGHT MISSION WEBCASTS

InSight L-2 Prelaunch Briefing - May 3, 2018

May 03, 2018

News Briefing

Watch a prelaunch news briefing to learn about the InSight and MarCO missions, as well as their upcoming launch.

Read news article ›

Credits

NASA

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This artist's concept depicts the stationary NASA Mars lander known by the acronym InSight at work studying the interior of Mars. The InSight mission is scheduled to launch in May 2018 and land on ...
More
This artist's concept depicts the stationary NASA Mars lander known by the acronym InSight at work studying the interior of Mars.
Artist's Concept of InSight Lander on Mars (Annotated)
The red dot marks the final landing location of NASA's InSight lander in this annotated image of the surface of Mars, taken by the THEMIS camera on NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey orbiter in 2015.
More
The red dot marks the final landing location of NASA's InSight lander in this annotated image of the surface of Mars, taken by the THEMIS camera on NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey orbiter in 2015.
InSight's Final Location on Mars
In this photo, the back shell of NASA's InSight spacecraft is being lowered onto the mission's lander, which is folded into its stowed configuration.
More
In this photo, the back shell of NASA's InSight spacecraft is being lowered onto the mission's lander, which is folded into its stowed configuration.
Lowering Back Shell onto Stowed InSight Lander
The InSight spacecraft approaches Mars in this artist’s concept.
More
The InSight spacecraft approaches Mars in this artist’s concept.
InSight Approaching Mars
The self-hammering mole, part of the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3) on NASA's InSight lander, was only partially buried in the soil of Mars as of early June 2019, as shown in this ...
More
The self-hammering mole, part of the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3) on NASA's InSight lander, was only partially buried in the soil of Mars as of early June 2019, as shown in this illustration.
Current Position of InSight's Mole (Illustration)
In this February 2015 scene from a clean room at Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, specialists are building the heat shield to protect NASA's InSight spacecraft when it is speeding through the...
More
In this February 2015 scene from a clean room at Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, specialists are building the heat shield to protect NASA's InSight spacecraft when it is speeding through the Martian atmosphere.
Heat Shield Construction for NASA's InSight Mission
InSight’s solar panels produced roughly 5,000 watt-hours each Martian day, or sol, after the spacecraft touched down in November 2018. But by spring 2022, enough dust had settled on the panels that...
More
InSight’s solar panels produced roughly 5,000 watt-hours each Martian day, or sol, after the spacecraft touched down in November 2018. But by spring 2022, enough dust had settled on the panels that they were only producing about 500 watt-hours each sol.
InSight's Power Generation: After Landing and Spring 2022
Tom Hoffman, InSight Project Manager, NASA JPL, left, and Sue Smrekar, InSight deputy principal investigator, NASA JPL, react after receiving confirmation that the Mars InSight lander successfully ...
More
Tom Hoffman, InSight Project Manager, NASA JPL, left, and Sue Smrekar, InSight deputy principal investigator, NASA JPL, react after receiving confirmation that the Mars InSight lander successfully touched down on the surface of Mars, Monday, Nov. 26, 2018 inside the Mission Support Area at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
InSight's Landing Celebration
Listen to Martian wind blow across NASA’s InSight lander. The spacecraft’s seismometer and air pressure sensor picked up vibrations from 10-15 mph (16-24 kph) winds as they blew across Mars’ Elysiu...
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Listen to Martian wind blow across NASA’s InSight lander. The spacecraft’s seismometer and air pressure sensor picked up vibrations from 10-15 mph (16-24 kph) winds as they blew across Mars’ Elysium Planitia on Dec. 1, 2018.
Sounds of Mars: NASA's InSight Senses Martian Wind
MarCO-B, one of the experimental Mars Cube One (MarCO) CubeSats, took this image of Mars from about 10,900 miles (17,500 kilometers) away just after NASA’s InSight spacecraft landed on Mars on Nov....
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MarCO-B, one of the experimental Mars Cube One (MarCO) CubeSats, took this image of Mars from about 10,900 miles (17,500 kilometers) away just after NASA’s InSight spacecraft landed on Mars on Nov. 26, 2018.
Away from Mars, With Sunburst
Clouds drift over the dome-covered seismometer, known as SEIS, belonging to NASA's InSight lander, on Mars.
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Clouds drift over the dome-covered seismometer, known as SEIS, belonging to NASA's InSight lander, on Mars.
Clouds Over SEIS
The Earth "rings" whenever earthquakes strike, just as vibrations moving through a bell creates a ringing sound. The InSight mission will see if tremors cause Mars to chime in with its own planetar...
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The Earth "rings" whenever earthquakes strike, just as vibrations moving through a bell creates a ringing sound. The InSight mission will see if tremors cause Mars to chime in with its own planetary song.
Music of the Spheres
Mythbuster Adam Savage and Engineer Adam Steltzner at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory on Nov. 26, 2018, for the landing of InSight on Mars.
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Mythbuster Adam Savage and Engineer Adam Steltzner at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory on Nov. 26, 2018, for the landing of InSight on Mars.
Employees and Visitors at JPL before InSight Landing
An artist's rendering of the twin Mars Cube One (MarCO) spacecraft flying over Mars with Earth in the distance.
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An artist's rendering of the twin Mars Cube One (MarCO) spacecraft flying over Mars with Earth in the distance.
MarCOs, Mars and Earth
NASA-JPL engineer Anne Marinan is among the first to send CubeSats into deep space with the Mars Cube One (MarCO) mission. These twin spacecraft may be small but Anne has big hopes for how they cou...
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Meet MarCO - Engineer Builds Mars Spacecraft That Can Fit in Your Backpack
Meet MarCO: Engineer Builds Mars Spacecraft That Can Fit in Your Backpack
Viewers on the West Coast may be able to see NASA's Mars InSight lander launch with its destination in sight. The Eta Aquarid meteor shower will be washed out by the Moon this month, but some meteo...
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Viewers on the West Coast may be able to see NASA's Mars InSight lander launch with its destination in sight.
What's Up May 2018
A spacecraft specialist in a clean room at Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver, where the InSight lander is being built, affixes a dime-size chip onto the lander deck in November 2015.
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A spacecraft specialist in a clean room at Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver, where the InSight lander is being built, affixes a dime-size chip onto the lander deck in November 2015.
Names Chip Placed on InSight Lander Deck
ForeSight, a fully functional, full-size model of NASA's InSight lander, practices deploying a model of the lander's Wind and Thermal Shield while engineers Phil Bailey (left) and Jaime Singer (cen...
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ForeSight, a fully functional, full-size model of NASA's InSight lander, practices deploying a model of the lander's Wind and Thermal Shield while engineers Phil Bailey (left) and Jaime Singer (center) look on. The Wind and Thermal Shield protects InSight's seismometer. This testing was done at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
Setting the Wind and Thermal Shield
Mars is experiencing large regional dust storms over its northern hemisphere during the past week.
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This movie was acquired by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter’s Mars Colour Imager (MARCI) camera.
The Martian Dust Storm of June 2018
NASA's InSight spacecraft is currently cruising to Mars. Yesterday, it performed its first course correction guiding it to the Red Planet.
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NASA's InSight spacecraft is currently cruising to Mars. Yesterday, it performed its first course correction guiding it to the Red Planet.
InSight Is on Its Way to Mars
NASA’s InSight has been busy. After landing on the Red Planet, the mission sent home pictures and sound, then placed its first instrument on the planet's surface. Plus, find out what the Curiosity ...
More
NASA’s InSight has been busy. After landing on the Red Planet, the mission sent home pictures and sound, then placed its first instrument on the planet's surface. Plus, find out what the Curiosity rover has been up to.
Mars Report: December 2018
The full-scale mock-up of NASA's MarCO CubeSat held by Farah Alibay, a systems engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, is dwarfed by the one-half-scale model of NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orb...
More
The full-scale mock-up of NASA's MarCO CubeSat held by Farah Alibay, a systems engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, is dwarfed by the one-half-scale model of NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter behind her.
Size Contrast for Mars CubeSat
This infographic shows how InSight uses a seismometer and quakes to study the inner layers of Mars. Seismic signals from quakes change as they pass through different kinds of materials; seismologis...
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This infographic shows how InSight uses a seismometer and quakes to study the inner layers of Mars. Seismic signals from quakes change as they pass through different kinds of materials; seismologists can “read” the squiggles of a seismogram to study the properties of the planet’s crust, mantle, and core.
How InSight Studies Mars' Inner Layers
NASA-JPL InSight engineer Ashitey Trebi-Ollennu builds robotic components for planetary exploration, a dream that began as a young child in Ghana.
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Inside InSight: Ghanaian Engineer Works on Robotic Arms for Mars
Inside InSight: Ghanaian Engineer Works on Robotic Arms for Mars
The 70m antenna at Goldstone, California against the background of the Mojave desert.
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The 70m antenna at Goldstone, California against the background of the Mojave desert.
Goldstone Antenna
This artist's concept depicts the stationary NASA Mars lander known by the acronym InSight at work studying the interior of Mars. The InSight mission is scheduled to launch in May 2018 and land on ...
More
This artist's concept depicts the stationary NASA Mars lander known by the acronym InSight at work studying the interior of Mars.
Artist's Concept of InSight Lander on Mars (Annotated)
The red dot marks the final landing location of NASA's InSight lander in this annotated image of the surface of Mars, taken by the THEMIS camera on NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey orbiter in 2015.
More
The red dot marks the final landing location of NASA's InSight lander in this annotated image of the surface of Mars, taken by the THEMIS camera on NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey orbiter in 2015.
InSight's Final Location on Mars
In this photo, the back shell of NASA's InSight spacecraft is being lowered onto the mission's lander, which is folded into its stowed configuration.
More
In this photo, the back shell of NASA's InSight spacecraft is being lowered onto the mission's lander, which is folded into its stowed configuration.
Lowering Back Shell onto Stowed InSight Lander
The InSight spacecraft approaches Mars in this artist’s concept.
More
The InSight spacecraft approaches Mars in this artist’s concept.
InSight Approaching Mars
The self-hammering mole, part of the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3) on NASA's InSight lander, was only partially buried in the soil of Mars as of early June 2019, as shown in this ...
More
The self-hammering mole, part of the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3) on NASA's InSight lander, was only partially buried in the soil of Mars as of early June 2019, as shown in this illustration.
Current Position of InSight's Mole (Illustration)
In this February 2015 scene from a clean room at Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, specialists are building the heat shield to protect NASA's InSight spacecraft when it is speeding through the...
More
In this February 2015 scene from a clean room at Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, specialists are building the heat shield to protect NASA's InSight spacecraft when it is speeding through the Martian atmosphere.
Heat Shield Construction for NASA's InSight Mission
InSight’s solar panels produced roughly 5,000 watt-hours each Martian day, or sol, after the spacecraft touched down in November 2018. But by spring 2022, enough dust had settled on the panels that...
More
InSight’s solar panels produced roughly 5,000 watt-hours each Martian day, or sol, after the spacecraft touched down in November 2018. But by spring 2022, enough dust had settled on the panels that they were only producing about 500 watt-hours each sol.
InSight's Power Generation: After Landing and Spring 2022
Tom Hoffman, InSight Project Manager, NASA JPL, left, and Sue Smrekar, InSight deputy principal investigator, NASA JPL, react after receiving confirmation that the Mars InSight lander successfully ...
More
Tom Hoffman, InSight Project Manager, NASA JPL, left, and Sue Smrekar, InSight deputy principal investigator, NASA JPL, react after receiving confirmation that the Mars InSight lander successfully touched down on the surface of Mars, Monday, Nov. 26, 2018 inside the Mission Support Area at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
InSight's Landing Celebration

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