InSight Lander

21 November 2019

NASA’s InSight lander is approaching Mars, and is scheduled to land on 26 November. This is no small feat, as if it doesn’t slow down from its current 5.5 kilometres per second (that’s about 20,000 kph!), the lander will end up a dirty smear in Mars’ deserts. It’ll use three different ways to slow down: a heat shield while it blasts through the upper atmosphere, a huge parachute, and finally a “sky crane”, which is a bank of 12 retro engines to land gently on the surface.

Hopefully.

Once these challenges are over, the science will begin on Elysium Planitia.

Keep up with all this in real time on NASA’s live broadcast, and for more information, check out NASA’s mission page.