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In April 2019, the NASA InSight lander used its instrument deployment camera (IDC) to capture a series of Martian sunrise and sunset images.
The NASA InSight lander used its IDC camera to record the Martian sunrise on April 24, 2019. This image was taken around 5:30 am local time in March. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.
The first mission to return such images was the NASA 1 Viking Lander, which took a sunset on August 21, 1976.
The NASA Viking 2 then took a sunrise on June 14, 1978.
Since then, the surveys and sunsets have been recorded by NASA's Spirit, Opportunity and Curiosity rovers.
"It's a tradition of Mars missions to capture sunrises and sunsets," said Dr. Justin Maki, associate research scientist in the InSight science team and researcher in imaging, a research scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
"Most of our main imaging tasks are complete, so we decided to capture the sunrise and sunset as seen from another world."
InSight used its IDC camera to photograph this sunset on Mars on April 25, 2019. This image was taken around 6.30pm. Mars local time. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.
InSight's IDC camera installed on the robotic arm of the LG took these photos on April 24 and 25, 2019, day of the 145th Martian mission day.
At the local time of March, the shots were taken from approximately 5:30 am and again around 6:30 pm
Much farther from Mars than from Earth, the Sun only appears about two-thirds of its size when it is seen from Earth.
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