Wisdom Quarterly: American Buddhist Journal: Mars revisited: NASA spacecraft to land

Associated Press (ap.org); Pat Macpherson, Crystal Q. (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

NASA 2018 illustration shows InSight lander drilling into surface of Mars. InSight ("Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy, and Heat Transport") is scheduled to arrive on Monday, Nov. 26, 2018 (NASA via AP).

Mars revisited: NASA spacecraft days away from risky landing

Shhh, I have unofficial access to the surface.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida - Mars is about to get its first [officially disclosed] U.S. visitor in years: a three-legged, one-armed geologist to dig deep and listen for quakes.

NASA's InSight makes its grand entrance through the rose-tinted Martian skies on Monday, after a six-month, 300 million mile (480 million km) journey.

Artist's interpretation

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

NASA is going with a tried-and-true method to get this mechanical miner to the surface of the red planet. Engine firings will slow its final descent and the spacecraft will plop down on its rigid legs, mimicking the landings of earlier successful missions.

Life long existed on Mars, now underground

That's where old school ends on this $1 billion U.S.-European effort. 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.

There are many cultural artifacts on surface.

No spacecraft has attempted anything like that before. The firsts don't stop there. One 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. That would shatter the out-of-this-world depth record of 8 feet (2 ½ meters) drilled by the Apollo moonwalkers nearly a half-century ago for lunar heat measurements.

No photos, just fake art

The astronauts also left behind instruments to measure moonquakes. InSight carries the first seismometers to monitor for marsquakes -- if they exist. Yet another experiment will calculate Mars' wobble, providing clues about the planet's core.

It won't be looking for signs of life, past or present. No life detectors are on board. More