There is jubilation in NASA as their InSight rover made a perfect landing on Mars after a seven-month-long journey covering more than 300 million miles. Artificial intelligence has played a major role in this project because the landing was as planned in an area known as Elysium Planitia. The rover successfully reduced its speed within the stipulated time and was able to withstand severely high temperatures that would have melted steel.

Sky News reports that InSight has sent back a 'selfie' after the successful landing by using a camera fixed on its robotic arm.

The photograph shows the rocky terrain of Mars. The craft will have to unfurl the solar panels to tap solar energy, which will provide power for all its needs during its stay. It is a billion dollar project and proves that America is ahead of others in the race to Mars.

InSight sets a major milestone

The US vice president Mike Pence lauded the "incredible milestone" set by NASA for the eighth successful landing on Mars. The space agency already has another rover on the red planet that has been there for more than five years. It is Curiosity and it is mobile but Insight will remain stationary. Both are robots and artificial intelligence is setting the pace of the future.

InSight will dig below the surface and unearth data that will help scientists to understand the inner unseen portions of Mars.

The UK Space Agency noted that it is also a part of the project because a British-made instrument is a part of the onboard equipment. This is a seismometer to map tremors and is sensitive enough to pick up the tiniest of sounds. NASA scientists have come across evidence that reveals Mars has quakes. Obviously, what this instrument finds will have a bearing on subsequent missions.

The three-legged InSight probe

According to the New Zealand Herald, NASA’s spacecraft InSight has landed on Mars and will be there for the next two years. The American space agency’s Curiosity rover was already there since 2012 and the three-legged InSight probe will join it. This will be stationary unlike Curiosity, which is mobile and will use its robotic arm to place a mechanical mole and seismometer on the ground.

The former will burrow into the depths while the latter will record possible quakes. Germany is in charge of the mole, and France of the seismometer.

Incidentally, there is no program to detect possibilities of life on Mars. The 2020 mission will probably take up that issue. It will collect rock samples and bring them back to Earth for detailed analysis to search for evidence of ancient life.
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