InSight Mission

WHY IN NEWS?

NASA’s InSight mission shows Mars is a seismically active world.

ABOUT INSIGHT MISSION

• The Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) mission of NASA is a robotic lander designed to study the deep interior of the planet Mars.
• It was manufactured by Lockheed Martin Space Systems, is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and most of its scientific instruments were built by European agencies.
• InSight, the first mission to explore Mars' deep interior, landed on Monday, Nov. 26, 2018, in the Elysium Planitia region of Mars.
• It will investigate processes that shaped the rocky planets of the inner solar system more than four billion years ago.
• On 24 February 2020, a summary of studies over the past year from InSight was presented which indicated that the planet Mars has active quakes, dust devils and magnetic pulses.

Prelims Question

Q. NASA’s InSight Mission aims to study which of the following celestial bodies?
a. Mars
b. Jupiter
c. Moon
d. Sun

Answer to the Prelims Question