The universe is too large for us to comprehend. All the stars, planets and galaxies we can observe only make up about four percent of the universe. But what we can see, we know so little about. To try to understand, we need to look at our own solar system first.

Mars InSight is an interior explorer robot that uses seismic waves and heat to investigate the interior of the red planet. It send information back to NASA through waves. NASA sent InSight out on May 5th, 2018, taking almost seven month to land.The mission timeline will be one martian year plus forty-five martian days (Nov. 24, 2020).

Engineers and Scientists watched in anticipation for the first wave of information to come in. For seven minutes they lost all connections with InSight once it entered Mars’ atmosphere. In those few minutes, a lot could have happened to make their mission unsuccessful. Dust storms are common on Mars, as well as the engineers not being able to test out the parachute beforehand.

Scientists made the lander’s home at the plains of Elysium Planitia. Choosing this location was based on a safe landing, so there had to be few rocks and no steep slopes. Having the lander misplaced could mess up the solar rays InSight needs.

With this mission being successful, more and more information about the planet is coming back to us. This is a big step moving forward knowing more about the universe around us, as well as bringing us a step closer to putting a man on Mars.