Watch InSight's successful landing on Mars: Difference between revisions

The Mars cubesats actually were sent to Mars on their own independent trajectories using tiny thrusters for course corrections. The big antenna is used to communicate back to Earth, a design that lets them focus the signal with a flat antenna. There is a small receiver to receive signals from Insight in the base of the satellite that deploys on springs. They communicate independently back to Earth too, the cubesats could fly to Mars by themselves so are true interplanetary cube sats. They are each about the size of a large briefcase and they are technology demonstrators. If they are successful then we may get direct transmission back to Earth of the Entry, Descent and Landing, which would arrive about three hours earlier than the signal relayed from its orbiters which will record it and then retransmit.