InSight’s Navigation Tools

InSight, for Interior Exploration Using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport, studies the deep interior of Mars to advance understanding of the early history of all rocky planets, including Earth.

The spacecraft has several tools that help guide its path: a star tracker tracks InSight's position against the stars in the night sky and tells navigators how the spacecraft is oriented, an inertial measurement unit with a gyroscope provides information on which way it is moving and how fast, and sun-sensors help the spacecraft know the direction of the sun.

The InSight Project is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin is building and testing the spacecraft. InSight is part of NASA's Discovery Program, which is managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.