NASA’s InSight mission was the first dedicated mission to study Mars’s deep interior and detected marsquakes with its seismometer. The lander touched down in Elysium Planitia on 26 November 2018.
InSight carried the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure, or SEIS, which recorded vibrations caused by marsquakes and impacts. These signals helped scientists estimate the sizes and boundaries of Mars’s crust, mantle, and core. InSight also measured the planet’s wobble and surface weather.
A heat-flow probe called HP3 was designed to burrow into the ground, but it could not reach its planned depth because the Martian soil did not provide enough friction for the instrument’s digging mechanism. Despite that limitation, the mission returned extensive seismic and meteorological data.
InSight ended science operations in December 2022 after dust covered its solar panels. The mission’s findings showed that Mars is seismically active, though its quakes are generally much weaker than Earth’s largest earthquakes.