Mars Report: December 20, 2018
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InSight
On November 26th, NASA’s InSight successfully landed at Elysium Planitia near the Mars equator.
The HiRISE camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured these images during a flyover.
Shortly after landing, InSight snapped its first pictures.
And within weeks, its first selfie.
InSight’s highly sensitive seismometer recorded the Martian winds vibrating its solar panels.
The lander’s air pressure sensor also recorded the wind.
Using the arm and camera, the team started characterizing the lander’s surroundings.
This testbed is used to practice setting the lander’s instruments on the surface before they do it for real on Mars.
They wear augmented reality headsets to build a Martian rock garden modeled on images from the spacecraft.
Days after testing deployment on Earth, InSight placed its first instrument on the surface of Mars.
New images show the seismometer on the ground, its copper-colored covering gleaming in the Martian sunlight.
Just 373 miles away at Gale Crater, Curiosity drilled its 19th hole on Mars.
This is the last sample the mission expects to drill from this location on Mount Sharp.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory
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