NASA Attempting to Land InSight Probe on Mars Surface

The near seven month journey of NASA’s InSight probe will be coming to an end as NASA will soon be making their attempt to land the probe on Mars.

The InSight probe, which first launched on May 5th on this year, will make a landing attempt on Monday, 3 P.M. Eastern Standard Time. The designated landing zone of the probe is the Elysium Planitia.

Landing the probe will not be easy, and those involved in the InSight project have dubbed the landing process as “seven minutes of terror.” The probe will need to navigate through the atmosphere of Mars and enter at an angle of 12 degrees, or it risks joining one of many downed probes that didn’t stick the landing. If this happens, a near $1 billion dollar investment will go down the tubes.

Making the landing even more shocking is that Elysium Planitia was chosen due to the likelihood of a successful landing. To hear that it will still be very difficult just goes to show how much of an effort is required to increase our knowledge of other worlds.

InSight, which is a backronym that stands for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport, has an important mission. This probe will be NASA’s first attempt at studying the deep interior of Mars as well as any seismic activity. If the landing is successful, it will take the InSight approximately three months to completely set up shop.

You can watch the landing attempt online at NASA’s official website here