earth science

InSight

InSight is a earth science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand InSight rather than just read about it. In short: The Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) mission was a robotic lander designed to study the deep interior of the planet Mars. It was manufactured by Lockheed Martin Space, was managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), and two of its three scientific instruments were built by European agencies.

Key takeaways

InSight belongs to earth science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect InSight to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of InSight from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) mission was a robotic lander designed to study the deep interior of the planet Mars. It was manufactured by Lockheed Martin Space, was managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), and two of its three scientific instruments were built by European agencies. InSight confirmed "marsquakes" on the planet and thus a still active interior. The mission launched on 5 May 2018 at 11:05:01 UTC aboard an Atlas V-401 launch vehicle and successfully landed at Elysium Planitia on Mars on 26 November 2018 at 19:52:59 UTC. InSight was active on Mars for 1440 sols (1480 days; 4 years, 19 days). InSight's objectives were to place a seismometer, called Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS), on the surface of Mars to measure seismic activity and provide accurate 3D models of the planet's interior; and measure internal heat transfer using a heat probe called HP3 to study Mars's early geological evolution. This was intended to provide a new understanding of how the Solar System's terrestrial planets – Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars – and Earth's Moon formed and evolved. The lander was originally planned for launch in March 2016. An instrument problem delayed the launch beyond the 2016 launch window. NASA officials rescheduled the InSight launch to May 2018 and during the wait the instrument was repaired. This increased the total cost from US$675 million to US$830 million. InSight successfully landed on Mars on 26 November 2018. Due to excessive dust on its solar panels preventing it from recharging, NASA put InSight in low-power mode for detecting seismic events in July 2022 and continued monitoring the lander through the operational period ending in December 2022. On 20 December 2022, NASA announced that the InSight lander had lost communications with Earth on 15 December 2022, with the end of the mission being declared on 21 December 2022.

History

Discovery Program selection

InSight was initially known as GEMS (Geophysical Monitoring Station), but its name was changed in early 2012 following a request by NASA. Out of 28 proposals from 2010, it was one of the three Discovery Program finalists receiving $3 million in May 2011 to develop a detailed concept study. In August 2012, InSight was selected for development and launch. Managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) with participation from scientists from several countries, the mission was cost-capped at US$425 million, not including launch vehicle funding. By reusing the landing system designed for the Mars Phoenix lander, which successfully landed on Mars in 2008, mission costs and risks were reduced.

Schedule issues Lockheed Martin began construction of the lander on 19 May 2014, with general testing starting on 27 May 2015. A persistent vacuum leak in the CNES-supplied seismometer known as the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS) led NASA to postpone the planned launch in March 2016 to May 2018. When InSight was delayed, the rest of the spacecraft was returned to Lockheed Martin's factory in Colorado for storage, and the Atlas V launch vehicle intended to launch the spacecraft was reassigned to the WorldView-4 mission. On 9 March 2016, NASA officials announced that InSight would be delayed until the 2018 launch window at an estimated cost of US$150 million. The spacecraft was rescheduled to launch on 5 May 2018 for a Mars landing on 26 November 2018 at 20:00 UTC. The flight plan remained unchanged with launch using an Atlas V launch vehicle from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory was tasked with redesigning and building a new vacuum enclosure for the SEIS instrument, while CNES conducted instrument integration and testing. On 22 November 2017, InSight completed testing in a thermal vacuum, also known as TVAC testing, where the spacecraft was put in simulated space conditions with reduced pressure and various thermal loads. On 23 January 2018, after a long storage, its solar panels were once again deployed and tested, and a second silicon chip containing 1.6 million names from the public was added to the lander.

Effects of Martian dust and end of operations The InSight lander, powered by solar panels and batteries, relies on periodic wind gusts called "cleaning events" to reduce dust accumulation on the panels. Elysium Planitia, the landing site of InSight, experienced fewer cleaning events than needed to keep science operations powered. In February 2021, at the start of the Martian winter, InSight's solar cells were producing 27% of capacity due to a thick covering of dust on the panels. At that time, NASA began the process of putting the lander into hibernation mode, shutting down data-gathering instruments on a schedule to conserve enough power to keep the lander electronics warm through the Martian winter. NASA had hoped that weather conditions would improve and allow InSight to store enough energy to come out of hibernation in July 2021. In May 2021, some generation capacity was restored by using the arm to position sand so it could blow onto the solar panels and scour them clean. NASA determined in May 2022 that there was too much dust on the panels to continue the mission. InSight was generating only one-tenth of the power from the sunlight than it did upon arrival. They put the lander in a low-power mode in July 2022 to continue monitoring for seismic events. NASA continued to monitor InSight until the end of 2022, when the spacecraft missed two consecutive communication attempts.

Science background

Seismic vibrations

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with InSight

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what InSight claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In earth science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to InSight before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about InSight ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of InSight

In research: InSight appears in earth science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses InSight in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: InSight is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2018 in California, 2018 on Mars, Discovery Program, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for InSight outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study InSight in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what InSight means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain InSight out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is InSight in simple terms?

Why does InSight matter?

Because it connects several earth science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study InSight?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on InSight.