You don't need wheels to explore Mars.
After touching down in November, NASA's InSight spacecraft will spread its solar panels, unfold a robotic arm … and stay put. Unlike the space agency's rovers, InSight is a lander designed to study an entire planet from just one spot.
This sedentary science allows InSight to detect geophysical signals deep below the Martian surface, including marsquakes and heat. Scientists will also be able to track radio signals from the stationary spacecraft, which vary based on the wobble in Mars' rotation. Understanding this wobble could help solve the mystery of whether the planet's core is solid.
Here are five things to know about how InSight conducts its science.
1. InSight Can Measure Quakes Anywhere on the Planet
Quakes on Earth are usually detected using networks of seismometers. InSight has only one – called SEIS (Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure) – so its science team will use some creative measurements to analyze seismic waves as they occur anywhere on the planet.
SEIS will measure seismic waves from marsquakes and meteorite strikes as they move through Mars. The speed of those waves changes depending on the material they're traveling through, helping scientists deduce what the planet's interior is made of.
Seismic waves come in a surprising number of flavors. Some vibrate across a planet's surface, while others ricochet off its center. They also move at different speeds. Seismologists can use each type as a tool to triangulate where and when a seismic event has happened.
This means InSight could have landed anywhere on Mars and, without moving, gathered the same kind of science.
2. InSight's Seismometer Needs Peace and Quiet
Seismometers are touchy by nature. They need to be isolated from "noise" in order to measure seismic waves accurately.
SEIS is sensitive enough to detect vibrations smaller than the width of a hydrogen atom. It will be the first seismometer ever set on the Martian surface, where it will be thousands of times more accurate than seismometers that sat atop the Viking landers.
To take advantage of this exquisite sensitivity, engineers have given SEIS a shell: a wind-and-thermal shield that InSight's arm will place over the seismometer. This protective dome presses down when wind blows over it; a Mylar-and-chainmail skirt keeps wind from blowing in. It also gives SEIS a cozy place to hide away from Mars' intense temperature swings, which can create minute changes in the instrument's springs and electronics.
3. InSight Has a Self-Hammering Nail
Have you ever tried to hammer a nail? Then you know holding it steady is key. InSight carries a nail that also needs to be held steady.
This unique instrument, called HP3 (Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package), holds a spike attached to a long tether. A mechanism inside the spike will hammer it up to 16 feet (5 meters) underground, dragging out the tether, which is embedded with heat sensors.
At that depth, it can detect heat trapped inside Mars since the planet first formed. That heat shaped the surface with volcanoes, mountain ranges and valleys. It may even have determined where rivers ran early in Mars' history.
4. InSight Can Land in a Safe Spot
Because InSight needs stillness – and because it can collect seismic and heat data from anywhere on the planet – the spacecraft is free to land in the safest location possible.
InSight's team selected a location on Mars' equator called Elysium Planitia – as flat and boring a spot as any on Mars. That makes landing just a bit easier, as there's less to crash into, fewer rocks to land on and lots of sunlight to power the spacecraft. The fact that InSight doesn't use much power and should have plenty of sunlight at Mars' equator means it can provide lots of data for scientists to study.
5. InSight Can Measure Mars' Wobble
InSight has two X-band antennas on its deck that make up a third instrument, called RISE (Rotation and Interior Structure Experiment). Radio signals from RISE will be measured over months, maybe even years, to study the tiny "wobble" in the rotation of the planet. That wobble is a sign of whether Mars' core is liquid or solid – a trait that could also shed light on the planet's thin magnetic field.
Collecting detailed data on this wobble hasn't happened since Mars Pathfinder's three-month mission in 1997 (although the Opportunity rover made a few measurements in 2011 while it remained still, waiting out the winter). Every time a stationary spacecraft sends radio signals from Mars, it can help scientists improve their measurements.
About InSight
JPL manages InSight for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. InSight is part of NASA's Discovery Program, managed by the agency's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Lockheed Martin Space in Denver built the InSight spacecraft, including its cruise stage and lander, and supports spacecraft operations for the mission.
A number of European partners, including France's Centre National d'Études Spatiales (CNES) and the German Aerospace Center (DLR), support the InSight mission. CNES provided the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS) instrument, with significant contributions from the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS) in Germany, the Swiss Institute of Technology (ETH) in Switzerland, Imperial College and Oxford University in the United Kingdom, and JPL. DLR provided the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3) instrument.
For more information about InSight, visit:
https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/
News Media Contact
Andrew Good
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-393-2433
andrew.c.good@jpl.nasa.gov
On Monday shortly before noon US west coast time (2000 ), NASA's  successfully touched down on  on Mars. It sent a signal beep and image of the surface of Mars to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in .
Artist's rendition of the InSight Lander showing the solar panels in their open position after landing, heat flow instrument in the deployed position, and seismometer. 

The lander used  with a heat shield, then a parachute and finally rockets to achieve a soft landing on the surface. It used similar entry, descent, and landing sequence to the .

Insight project manager Tom Hoffman said, "We hit the Martian atmosphere at 12,300  miles per hour; 19,800 , and the whole sequence to touching down on the surface took only six and a half minutes ... During that short span of time, InSight had to autonomously perform dozens of operations and do them flawlessly — and by all indications, that is exactly what our spacecraft did."

''InSight'' stands for ''Interior exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport''. The lander's two-year mission is to assess what Mars is like underground, determining the planet's heat flow and listening to the reverberations of groundquakes and meteorite impacts.

Acting director of NASA's Planetary Science Division Lori Glaze said, "We've studied Mars from orbit and from the surface since 1965, learning about its weather, atmosphere, geology and surface chemistry ... Now we finally will explore inside Mars and deepen our understanding of our terrestrial neighbor as NASA prepares to send human explorers deeper into the solar system."

InSight is expected to begin its mission in a few months, once it has placed the equipment on the surface of Mars. Its solar panels are now open, catching sunlight and powering the spacecraft. It is equipped to drive a device up to 16  (5 ) down into Mars's surface, a record for Mars probes. This is to help characterize heat flow from the planet. Insight also has ultra sensitive seismometers which it is to use to detect Mars earthquakes for the first time.  By recording the seismic waves from these quakes, InSight would help scientists infer things about the interior of Mars, such as how seismically active it is. InSight has as single , with which NASA plans to assess signals from different types of vibrational wave, triangulate their sources, and so derive information about the planetary interior. 

InSight was launched May 5 of this year and traveled reportedly 301,223,981 miles (somewhat over 484,773,000 kilometres) between planets followed by two suitcase-sized cube satellites called , individually MarCO-A and MarCO-B, which relayed information to Earth during the landing process.

Previous successful landers on Mars include '''', '''', '''', '''', '''', ''Phoenix'', and . Of these, only ''Curiosity'' is still in communication with Earth, after NASA lost communication with ''Opportunity'' in June. InSight's landing spot in the Elysium Planitia is about 600 km from ''Curiosity'''s landing site in .