TOUCHDOWN! InSight is on Mars right now and MarCO worked flawlessly

First image taken seconds after landing. Dark dots are dust particles which were lifted by braking engines

First time I watched a Martian landing broadcast was Curiosity's, or Mars Science Lab, as it is also called. I enjoyed Curiosity landing on Mars in 2012 like a child. You can rewatch it, if you wish. That was the broadcast featuring that guy with the mohican haircut. He looked so hot and idiotic at the same time! The epicness begun from 17:00 or so although the real landing is almost at the end of the video. I keep watching it from time to time.

I have to admit that I have just felt exactly as excited and happy when they confirmed the probe had landed. Soon after that confirmation, the above picture was also received. And that was the final confirmation, as InSight could still have landed on its side, which would have left all the mission not operational.

My name is on Mars now

Before NASA launched a test model of their new crew capsule, Orion, they begun to offer people the possibility of sending their names on that vehicle. I did it, but as it was their first time, servers failed many times and did no provide a unique identification number to every person.

For InSight they repeated again, but this time it worked. They provided you with a boarding pass and they even counted for the miles your name would fly. Here is mine:

The name itself -mine along more than two million names more- was coded in a couple of microchips and then glued to the probe. Here is a picture of the processing of the second chip:

Photo by Lockheed Martin, downloaded from https://mars.nasa.gov/resources/21461/second-microchip-gets-ready-for-launch/?site=insight

But what is this all about?

InSight is a mission to understand deep geology of planet Mars. It will be trying to understand the material which passes through while it travels and comes back throughout planet internal structure. It will also take internal temperature from several meters below surface. Additionally it includes a surface weather station. One of the particularities of this probe is that will use an artificial arm in order to put instruments on Mars ground, instead of extending them and be part of the robot, as usual. Instruments have been developed and manufactured by NASA, French CNES and German DLR.

MarCO are a pair of cubesats. They are a fully separated mission which was launched at the same time using the same Atlas V rocket. However, they split from InSight soon after launch. They are a technology demonstrators. Their job is to relay data to Earth while InSight is performing its 7 Minutes of Death, Entry-Descend-Land.