Augmented reality is a new approach to digital storytelling that we are exploring. Read about how to use it on your phone or tablet here.

Augmented reality is a new approach to digital storytelling that we are exploring. Read about how to use it on your phone or tablet here.

Missions to Mars

In July 1965, the Mariner 4 spacecraft flew past Mars and took the first close-up image of another planet, a series of numbers that impatient engineers colored by hand.

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Ticker tape image of Mars, colored by NASA engineers. NASA/JPL-Caltech/Dan Goods

Since then, Earth has sent 18 spacecraft to try to land on Mars or its larger moon, Phobos. Five never made it, four crashed into Mars and two failed after landing. Only seven touched down softly and survived to take their own photographs.

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The first photograph taken on the surface of Mars, by Viking 1 on July 20, 1976. NASA/JPL

NASA’s InSight spacecraft launched on May 5 and is scheduled to land on Mars on Nov. 26.

If successful, the lander will join two rovers still operating on the surface and a growing fleet of spacecraft studying the planet from Mars orbit.

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THE MARS INSIGHT LANDER is scheduled to land on Mars on Nov. 26. It will study the deep structure of the planet.

THE CURIOSITY ROVER has been exploring and drilling in Gale Crater since 2012.

THE PHOENIX LANDER touched down near Mars’ North Pole in 2008, and found water ice under the surface.

THE OPPORTUNITY ROVER has roamed Mars since 2004. NASA is trying to regain contact after a huge dust storm obscured the solar panels.

THE SPIRIT ROVER roamed Mars from 2004 to 2009, when it became stuck in a patch of soft ground.

THE PATHFINDER MISSION landed in 1997 and carried Sojourner, the first Martian rover.

THE VIKING 2 LANDER and its twin, Viking 1, both carried seismometers, but were unable to definitively detect marsquakes.

THE VIKING 1 LANDER touched down in July 1976 and returned the first photo from the surface of Mars.

Listening for Marsquakes

After landing, InSight will unfurl its solar panels and use its robotic arm to place two instruments on the Martian surface.

Robotic arm

Solar panels

Seismometer

Heat flow probe

Robotic arm

Solar panels

Seismometer

and protective

dome

Heat flow probe

Robotic arm

Solar panels

Seismometer

and protective

dome

Heat flow probe

Robotic arm

Solar panels

Seismometer

and protective

dome

Heat flow probe

Image by NASA/JPL

A seismometer under a protective dome will listen for marsquakes, which have never been confirmed.

InSight’s seismometer can detect vibrations smaller than the diameter of an atom, and should be able to sense meteorite impacts and the tidal swelling of the ground from the gravity of the moon Phobos.

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The small moon Phobos exerts a tidal pull on Mars. NASA, ESA, Z. Levay and G. Bacon, Space Telescope Science Institute

A smaller device will try to hammer itself about 16 feet into the Martian soil, to measure heat flow from the interior of the planet.

Mars and Earth share a similar past, and what InSight discovers could help explain the formation of other rocky planets, both within our solar system and orbiting distant stars.

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INSIGHT’S SEISMOMETER will be placed on the ground and covered with a protective, chainmail-skirted dome. It will detect vibrations from marsquakes and meteorite impacts.
A HEAT FLOW PROBE will hammer itself about 16 feet into the Martian soil to measure heat welling up from the planet’s core.
A RADIO EXPERIMENT on InSight’s deck will allow Earth to precisely track the lander’s location and determine how Mars wobbles as it orbits the sun.

Wet Mars

Mars today is dry and dusty, but long ago it had rivers and oceans, and may have been hospitable to life.

Previous missions to Mars have tried to “follow the water” by digging for ice or searching for rocks shaped by water.

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Layered rock formed by sediments flowing into a Martian lake. NASA/JPL-Caltech

InSight will complement that search by looking deep inside the planet.

With luck, InSight’s seismic readings might discover evidence of underground aquifers or help explain how gases from the magma filled the early Martian atmosphere.

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AN ARTIST’S CONCEPTION of early Mars, before the planet’s water was lost to space or froze into the ground.

Six Months to Mars

InSight was not alone during its six-month cruise to Mars. Two small CubeSats, each about the size of a briefcase, trailed behind to monitor the spacecraft’s descent onto the planet’s surface.

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An engineer tests one of two small CubeSats that will fly behind InSight. NASA/JPL-Caltech

After months of flight, one of the CubeSats returned a test image of Mars in early October.

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The first image of Mars taken by a CubeSat. NASA/JPL-Caltech

InSight launched on May 5 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. It was the first interplanetary mission to launch from the West Coast.

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Lifting off from Vandenberg Air Force Base. NASA TV

Watch a video preview of InSight’s mission to Mars:

The First-Ever BMW X2
Inverted Kidney Grille
Alloy Wheels Ranging from 18" to 20"
Optional M Sport X Package
BMW Roundel on C-Pillar

Produced by Graham Roberts, Jonathan Corum and Marcelle Hopkins. AR experience design and production by Mika Gröndahl, Evan Grothjan, Yuliya Parshina-Kottas, Karthik Patanjali, Miles Peyton. AR and WebGL development by Jon Huang, Ben Wilhelm and Blacki Migliozzi.

Cover image of Mars by the Viking 1 orbiter, from NASA and the United States Geological Survey.

Mars mission map from the USGS Astrogeology Science Center and Arizona State University’s Mars Space Flight Facility.

InSight model by NASA, Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the California Institute of Technology, adapted and simplified for augmented reality by The New York Times.

Early Mars map by European Southern Observatory/Martin Kornmesser.

Sources – NASA, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio and the Maven Science Team.