NASA's InSight lander used its Instrument Deployment Camera (IDC) on the spacecraft's robotic arm to image this sunrise on Mars on April 24, 2019, the 145th Martian day (or sol) of the mission. This was taken around 5:30 a.m. Mars local time.
NASA’s stationary InSight lander is spending two years on Mars learning everything it can about the deep interior of the Red Planet. Recently, it has provided a series of images of sunrise and sunset images.
Using a camera attached on its robotic arm, the lander captured the images on April 24 and 25, the 145th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. In local Mars time, the shots were taken starting around 5:30 a.m. and then again starting around 6:30 p.m. As a bonus, a camera under the lander’s deck also caught clouds drifting across the Martian sky at sunset.
Justin Maki, InSight science team co-investigator and imaging lead at NASA‘s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California said, “This is actually the second time InSight has captured these daily events: The camera took practice shots on March 2 and 10. It’s been a tradition for Mars missions to capture sunrises and sunsets. With many of our primary imaging tasks complete, we decided to capture the sunrise and sunset as seen from another world.”
NASA’s InSight lander used the Instrument Deployment Camera (IDC) on the end of its robotic arm to image this sunset on Mars. This color-corrected version more accurately shows the image as the human eye would see it. Credits: NASA/JPL-CaltechNASA’s InSight lander used the Instrument Deployment Camera (IDC) on the end of its robotic arm to image this sunset on Mars on April 25, 2019, the 145th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. This was taken around 6:30 p.m. Mars local time. Credits: NASA/JPL-CaltechNASA’s InSight lander used the Instrument Deployment Camera (IDC) on the end of its robotic arm to image this sunset on Mars. This color-corrected version more accurately shows the image as the human eye would see it. Credits: NASA/JPL-CaltechNASA’s InSight used its Instrument Context Camera (ICC) beneath the lander’s deck to image these drifting clouds at sunset. This color-corrected version more accurately shows the image as the human eye would see it. Credits: NASA/JPL-CaltechNASA’s InSight used its Instrument Context Camera (ICC) beneath the lander’s deck to image these drifting clouds at sunset. This series of images was taken on April 25, 2019, the 145th Martian day, or sol, of the mission, starting at around 6:30 p.m. Mars local time. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech
