Facts about InSight

1. 08

   A motorized drill on InSight's robotic arm rotated at 30 revolutions per minute to collect soil samples from up to 5 centimeters below the Martian surface for mineralogical analysis.

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2. 07

   InSight's Instrument Deployment Camera captured over 1 million images during the mission, providing crucial documentation of the lander's operations and the Martian landscape around Elysium Planitia.

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3. 06

   Solar panels powering InSight gradually accumulated Martian dust, reducing the lander's power output from 5,000 watts at landing to approximately 500 watts by mission end in December 2022.

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4. 05

   InSight's robotic arm collected over 70 soil samples during its mission, analyzing them with an onboard spectrometer to study Mars's mineral composition and past water activity.

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5. 04

   During its four-year mission, InSight's magnetometer measured Mars's magnetic field at 1,500 nanoTeslas, roughly 50 times weaker than Earth's magnetic field.

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6. 03

   The 2-meter-long heat probe on InSight failed to penetrate Mars's soil beyond 30 centimeters due to unexpected subsurface cohesion, ending its temperature measurement mission in 2021.

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7. 02

   InSight's seismometer detected over 1,300 marsquakes between 2019 and 2022, revealing Mars has a liquid outer core 1,810 kilometers in radius.

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8. 01

   On November 26, 2018, NASA's InSight lander touched down on Mars's Elysium Planitia region after a nearly seven-month journey from Earth.

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