After a journey across space started in May of this year, Nasa’s InSight probe has landed tonight on Mars as planned, while the world held its breath.
While this was not the first visit to Mars, the odds of success were still low. Only about 40% of missions have succeeded, so far. As recently as 2016, ESA failed spectacularly with its Schiaparelli probe which just smashed into the ground.
On 26 November at 8 pm GMT time, Insight landed and the successive minutes confirmed that the landing has been textbook, and a resounding success for the American space agency. Now, Insight will embark on an unprecedented mission. Contrary to previous probes, such as Opportunity, Spirit and Curiosity, Insight will be a stationary presence and will map the planet’s interior, going as deep as no probe as ever been before.
For watching the full coverage from NASA’s laboratoriess, see this:
See you on the Red Planet. (Image credit: the Oatmeal).
Good news! I was thinking about this all day today but couldn’t go to the NASA site because work was so crazy. I hope we get to see more fun photos from Mars now!
They have already started coming 🙂