NASA's InSight lander on Mars
NASA's InSight lander on Mars
InSight is a geophysical station approximately six metres wide and one metre high and with a mass of around 700 kilograms. It has been in the Elysium Planitia region, a little north of the Martian equator, since 26 November 2018. Two of its primary instruments are the French seismometer, SEIS (front left in the artistic representation – in reality, the instrument is located under the dome-shaped wind and thermal shield), for measuring marsquakes, built with the cooperation of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, and the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3, front right), developed and built at DLR. The smaller image shows a 'selfie' of the lander taken with the camera at the end of its robotic arm. Dust has settled on the solar panels, which has reduced power generation and currently only allows for limited operation of the lander.