On 5th May 2018, in California, NASA launched a rocket for a mission called InSight.
This rocket will travel through space for 7 months and cover over 300 million miles, heading for Mars! (485,000,000 km = 301,365,030 miles) note de Phil
It is carrying a new, highly sophisticated robot lander, whose deck measures 5 feet across.
When it arrives, it’ll land gently on the surface of Mars and stay put!
Its aim? Examine the red planet’s interior structure for 2 years. Its first checkup!
But how will the robot do this?
On landing, 2 solar panels will deploy automatically to generate the energy needed for it to work.
Then a remote-controlled robotic arm will place a seismometer on the surface. This highly accurate instrument measures seismic vibrations.