Mars to get its first US visitor: NASA Insight story

New Delhi : It is likely that the Red Planet will get its first visitor in a few years. The three-legged, one-armed geologist is all set to dig deep and listen for quakes. 

Sources confirmed that NASA's InSight makes its grand entrance through the rose-tinted Martian skies, after a six-month, 300 million-mile journey.

It is believed to be the first American spacecraft to land since the Curiosity rover in 2012 and the first dedicated to exploring underground.

However, landing on Mars may be risky. Once flight controllers in California determine the coast is clear at the landing site, fairly flat and rock free, InSight's 6-foot (1.8-meter) arm will remove the two main science experiments from the lander's deck and place them directly on the Martian surface. Till date, no spacecraft has attempted anything like this.

An experiment will attempt to penetrate 16 feet (5 meters) into Mars, using a self-hammering nail with heat sensors to gauge the planet's internal temperature. This would shatter the out-of-this-world depth record of 8 feet drilled by the Apollo moonwalkers nearly a half-century ago for lunar heat measurements.

To inform, astronauts has left behind instruments to measure moonquakes. NASA's Insight carries the first seismometers to monitor for marsquakes. Still, another experiment will calculate Mars' wobble, providing clues about the planet's core.