InSight spacecraft has a deep mission in Martian soil

May 2, 2018 Cape Canaveral, Fla.--Six years after last landing on Mars, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration is sending a robotic geologist to dig deeper than ever before to take the planet's temperature. The Mars InSight spacecraft, set to launch this weekend, will also take the planet's pulse by making the first measurements of "marsquakes." And to check its reflexes, scientists will track the wobbly rotation of Mars on its axis to better understand the size and makeup of its core. The lander's instruments will allow scientists "to stare down deep into the planet," said the mission's chief scientist, Bruce Banerdt of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "Beauty's not just skin deep here," he said.