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Join NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientists and engineers and get a sneak peek of the InSight Mars mission, the first to focus on examining the deep interior of Mars. Launched in May 2018, this lander is the very first interplanetary launch from the West Coast. The Exploratorium hosted the InSight Roadshow with a half-scale model of the lander and an array of instruments.
InSight (Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport) is a NASA Discovery Program mission that will place a single lander on Mars. InSight is more than a Mars mission; it’s a terrestrial planet explorer that will address one of the most fundamental questions of planetary and solar system science: What are the processes that shaped the rocky planets of the inner solar system, including Earth, more than four billion years ago?
By using sophisticated geophysical instruments, InSight will delve deep beneath the surface of Mars, detecting the fingerprints of the processes of terrestrial planet formation, as well as measuring the planet's “vital signs”: its "pulse" (seismology), "temperature" (heat flow probe), and "reflexes" (precision tracking).