What is the next step for NASA's New Mars Lander?

PASADENA, Calif. – NASA's InSight lander has landed on Mars, but it will take some time before the robot is ready to begin its scientific work.

InSight arrived at his new home yesterday afternoon (November 26), after touching a plane on an equatorial plane called Elysium Planitia. The lander will begin to survey the inside of the red planet with unprecedented details – in a few months.

It will take a long time for InSight to deploy and calibrate its two main scientific instruments, a thermal burr probe and a series of super-sensitive seismometers. This equipment must be placed on the Martian surface by the robot arm of the LG, and members of the InSight team want to make sure that they are going through this crucial step – that 's all. no other Mars robot has yet accomplished – perfectly. [NASA’s InSight Mars Lander: Full Coverage]

The researchers will therefore spend the next few weeks studying the InSight landing site carefully, deciding on the best deployment area. Next, they will practice using a landing gear on the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) test bench, which manages the mission of InSight.

This work will include "terraforming" the testbed to resemble InSight's surroundings on the red planet, said Elizabeth Barrett of JPL, head of mission instrument operations, at a press conference held after landing.

Barrett compared the deployment to a very difficult and very risky version of an arcade-claw machine game.

"It lengthens a bit of time – you have to take more breaks to make sure you have the hook on the payload before lifting it, and it's actually on the ground before letting it go," he said. declared Barrett.

The InSight arm will actually perform three placements of this type, as it will place a shield over the seismometers suite to isolate the instrument from wind and temperature variations, which could hinder the collection and delivery. interpretation of the data.

It will take another two to three months to complete the deployments, said Barrett, "and then in a few months" before InSight is ready to begin its March scientific campaign. It will take more time for the thermal probe to sink up to 5 meters below the surface and to properly calibrate both instruments.

When they are operational, the seismometers will search for "marsquakes" caused by internal Martian rumblings and meteorite strikes. The thermal probe, meanwhile, will measure the heat flow at different depths. Members of the InSight team will also become familiar with the Martian core by measuring the slight flickering of the planet's axial tilt. They will collect data by precisely following the position of InSight over time.

Together, these observations will reveal much information about the internal structure and composition of Mars, which will dramatically inform how rock planets form and evolve, mission team members said.

InSight has already provided some information at home, including a speckled photo of dust from its immediate surroundings. And that little taste – the first March image of the immobile lander – bodes well for future data collection, Barrett and other team members said: The region appears to be relatively flat and sandy, without many large rocks or other obstacles to deployment.

"We were all certain that this first image would help us determine the difficulty of placing the instruments," said Barrett. "And I'm very happy that it seems we'll be able to do it quite easily – we hope."

"InSight" is an abbreviation for "indoor exploration using seismic surveys, geodesy and heat transport". The surface mission of the lander must last a Martian year, or nearly two Earth years. Team members said it would probably take a lot of time for LG to gather enough data to meet its key objectives

Mike Wall's book on the search for extraterrestrial life, "Over there"(Grand Central Publishing, 2018, illustrated by Karl Tate) is out now. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. follow us @Spacedotcom or Facebook. Originally published on Space.com.