When will the InSight space probe land on Mars, what date did it launch and what’s the purpose of its mission
The InSight space probe, launched earlier this year, is currently two million kilometres from the Red Planet but is expected to finish its journey very soon
NASA's latest mission to Mars hinges on the perilous journey of its InSight probe reaching the surface of the planet later this month.
The landing sequence is a very dangerous one where lots of problems can surface. Here is everything you need to know about the landing.
When will the InSight space probe land on Mars?
Launched from Earth in May, Insight is still a couple of million kilometres from the Red Planet.
But the arrival time is fixed, says Tom Hoffman, InSight project manager at JPL.
He said: "We're going to land on November 26 at about 11:47 Pacific time (19:47 GMT) regardless of anything.
"That is, we're on a ballistic entry; we can't change it; we can't go back around."
InSight is a static probe, meaning it won't rove around the planet like Curiosity or Nasa's other wheeled robots.
What is the purpose of InSight's mission?
Insight is going to put seismometers on the surface to feel for "Marsquakes".
These tremors should reveal how the underground rock is layered - data that can be compared with Earth to shed further light on the formation of the planets 4.6 billion years ago.
The UK has contributed a trio of microseismometers, around the size of a pound coin, that will go after the higher frequencies.
The British instrument was developed at Imperial College London and Oxford University. Its principal investigator is Prof Tom Pike.