The InSight lander aimed for an afternoon touchdown, as anxiety built among those involved in the $1 billion international effort. No experiments have ever been moved robotically from the spacecraft to the actual Martian surface. NASA’s Mars 2020 mission, for instance, will collect rocks for eventual return that could hold evidence of ancient life. Viewing parties are planned coast to coast at museums, planetariums and libraries, as well as in France, where InSight’s seismometer was designed and built. It will take longer to hear from NASA’s Mars orbiters.

Source: National Post November 26, 2018 13:52 UTC