Mars InSight Photos: A Timeline to Landing on the Red Planet

Countdowns
By Jeanna Bryner
published

Kicking up dust

Mars InSight lander landing art

(Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

As InSight touches down on the surface of the Red Planet, it's sure to kick up some dust.

Touchdown

Mars InSight lander landing art

(Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

The top of the InSight spacecraft is shown in this artist's rendering, as the lander gets closer to touchdown.

Flat landing ellipse

Mars InSight lander art

(Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Once it touches down, the InSight lander will deploy its instruments. A version of the illustration, shown here, depicts the smooth, flat ground that dominates InSight's landing ellipse in Mars' Elysium Planitia region.

Deep under Mars

Mars InSight lander art

(Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

The InSight lander is designed to give the Red Planet its first thorough check up since it formed 4.5 billion years ago.

Jeanna Bryner
Jeanna Bryner
Live Science Editor-in-Chief

Jeanna served as editor-in-chief of Live Science. Previously, she was an assistant editor at Scholastic's Science World magazine. Jeanna has an English degree from Salisbury University, a master's degree in biogeochemistry and environmental sciences from the University of Maryland, and a graduate science journalism degree from New York University. She has worked as a biologist in Florida, where she monitored wetlands and did field surveys for endangered species. She also received an ocean sciences journalism fellowship from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.