Here's What Mars Looks Like Now to a Tiny Cubesat Chasing NASA's InSight Lander

News
By
( )
published
NASA's small MarCO-B cubesat took this photo of Mars from a distance of 310,000 miles on Nov. 24, 2018 ahead of the Nov. 26 landing of the InSight spacecraft. This annotated view shows the spacecraft parts visible.
NASA's small MarCO-B cubesat took this photo of Mars from a distance of 310,000 miles on Nov. 24, 2018 ahead of the Nov. 26 landing of the InSight spacecraft. This annotated view shows the spacecraft parts visible. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

PASADENA, Calif. — A tiny cubesat cruising through interplanetary space has captured a new glimpse of Mars, just before watching NASA's InSight lander  touch down the Red Planet.

The cubesat, one of two Mars Cube One probes (called MarCO for short) snapped the Mars photo on Saturday (Nov. 24). That's two days before the InSight probe is due to land on the plains of Elysium Planitia Monday (Nov. 26) to study the interior of Mars.

"We are taking more pictures," MarCo-A mission manager Cody Colley told reporters in a press conference Sunday (Nov. 26). "The MarCOs use a very off-the-shelf camera, and we're learning as we go as we take those pictures." [NASA's InSight Mars Lander: Full Coverage]

This photo was taken by the MarCO-B cubesat, showing Mars from a distance of about 310,000 miles (500,000 kilometers), according to a NASA image description.

The twin MarCo cubesats are demonstration craft built to test the potential of tiny satellites for interplanetary missions. They launched with the InSight Mars lander in May, and are the first cubesats ever to fly an interplanetary mission.

Scientists hope the MarCO cubesats can serve as a communications relay during InSight's landing on Mars, beaming telemetry from the lander back to Earth. Each MarCO probe is about the size of a briefcase and is equipped with an attitude control system that uses the compressed gas R236FA, which is commonly used in fire extinguishers. That prompted NASA scientists to nickname them "Wall-E" and "Eva" after the two robots who use a fire extinguisher to fly in space in Disney's animated film "Wall-E."

A clear view of Mars (lower left) as seen by NASA's small MarCO-B cubesat on Nov. 24, 2018. At the time, the spacecraft was about 310,000 miles from Mars. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Unlike InSight, the MarCO probes won't stop at Mars. They'll fly by the Red Planet and continue on in the space between planets, NASA officials have said.

Visit Space.com Monday, Nov. 26, for complete coverage of the InSight landing on Mars, including a live webcast at 2 p.m. EST (1900 GMT). Landing is scheduled for about 3 p.m. EST (2000 GMT).

Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: community@space.com.

Tariq Malik
Tariq Malik
Editor-in-Chief

Tariq is the Editor-in-Chief of Space.com and joined the team in 2001, first as an intern and staff writer, and later as an editor. He covers human spaceflight, exploration and space science, as well as skywatching and entertainment. He became Space.com's Managing Editor in 2009 and Editor-in-Chief in 2019. Before joining Space.com, Tariq was a staff reporter for The Los Angeles Times covering education and city beats in La Habra, Fullerton and Huntington Beach. In October 2022, Tariq received the Harry Kolcum Award for excellence in space reporting from the National Space Club Florida Committee. He is also an Eagle Scout (yes, he has the Space Exploration merit badge) and went to Space Camp four times as a kid and a fifth time as an adult. He has journalism degrees from the University of Southern California and New York University. You can find Tariq at Space.com and as the co-host to the This Week In Space podcast with space historian Rod Pyle on the TWiT network. To see his latest project, you can follow Tariq on Twitter @tariqjmalik.