InSight was an American spacecraft mission launched by
NASA and the
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, consisting of a robotic
lander designed to study the deep interior of the planet
Mars. Launched in 2018, the mission was active until late 2022, when contact with the lander was lost.
InSight's objectives were to place a
seismometer on the surface of Mars to measure seismic activity and provide accurate three-dimensional models of the planet's interior, and to measure internal
heat transfer using a heat probe to study Mars's early geological evolution. This was intended to provide a new understanding of how the Solar System's
terrestrial planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars) as well as the Moon formed and evolved. This 2015 photograph shows three technicians working on the
InSight lander with its
solar panels deployed during preflight testing in a
cleanroom in
Denver, Colorado.
Photograph credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Lockheed Martin
