InSight

Mission overview

InSight was a stationary lander that studied the deep interior of Mars with a seismometer.

Mission data

Identity and engineering data from Wikidata (type-verified match · Q1660590) · launch date 2018-05-05 confirmed

Sourced from Wikidata (community-maintained structured data, whose statements link to their own citations where provided); each value carries its Wikidata QID. A field with conflicting Wikidata values is omitted. Launch date is used only to cross-check the catalogue, never to override it. Fields Wikidata did not provide, or where conflicting values exist, are omitted, never invented.

Primary-source verification

Committed mission facts cross-checked against the official NASA primary source — NASA Science — InSight.

Verified by corroboration against the official agency document: a launch date is “Confirmed by primary” only when the page literally states it; a launch mass only when the page states a figure equal to it within catalogue rounding (±0.5%). Source precedence is primary agency > peer-reviewed > official mission page > structured secondary > Wikidata; a primary source outranks Wikidata but no engineering value is transcribed from the page — an uncorroborated value is kept as its original (secondary) source, never re-labelled primary. Checked 2026-07-12.

Outcome & discoveries

Recorded hundreds of marsquakes, revealing the size of Mars's core, mantle, and crust.

• ★First measurements of marsquakes and Mars's internal structure

Mission profile

Knowledge connections

• Operated byNASA
• Part of programDiscovery Program
• Launched byAtlas V
• Launched fromVandenberg Space Force Base
• Mission targetMars
• Carries instrumentSEIS (Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure)

Related missions

Sources

The primary and reference sources this topic draws on.

• NASA JPLJet Propulsion Laboratory / Solar System Dynamics

  Orbital data, ephemerides, and small-body parameters for planets, asteroids, and comets.