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

Countdowns
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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
Managing editor, Scientific American

Jeanna Bryner is managing editor of Scientific American. Previously she was editor in chief of Live Science and, prior to that, an editor at Scholastic's Science World magazine. Bryner 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, including the gorgeous Florida Scrub Jay. She also received an ocean sciences journalism fellowship from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. She is a firm believer that science is for everyone and that just about everything can be viewed through the lens of science.