A probe lands on Mars

THIS IS THE view from the instrument deployment camera of InSight, America’s latest probe to Mars, which landed safely on November 26th. InSight joins one, or possibly two, other missions now operating on the Martian surface (an American rover called Opportunity stopped working six months ago in a dust storm, but may revive if wind blows the dust off its solar panels). Six further craft are making observations from orbit. InSight will investigate the planet’s interior, deploying its instruments (a seismometer to record the echoes of Marsquakes and meteorite impacts, and a probe to measure the planet’s subsurface heat) in two or three months’ time, after its controllers have practised using models, built on Earth, of its surroundings.