InSight Lander - NASA Science (original) (raw)

InSight landed near Mars' equator on the western side of a flat, smooth plain called Elysium Planitia. Elysium Planitia was selected not for its surface features, but for safety considerations. InSight's purpose was to study the interior of Mars, not the surface. Thus, in the selection of a landing site, what's on the surface mattered less than for previous rover missions focused on the geology.

Planitia is Latin for a flat surface, geometric plane, or flatness or a plain. Elysium is from the ancient Greek name for an afterlife paradise, usually referred to in English as the Elysian Fields. The landing site lies in the western portion of Elysium Planitia, centered at about 4.5 degrees north latitude and 135.9 degrees east longitude. This is just 373 miles (600 kilometers) from Curiosity’s landing site, Gale Crater.

Image Caption: The red dot marks the final landing location of NASA's InSight lander in this annotated image of the surface of Mars, taken by the THEMIS camera on NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey orbiter in 2015. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU