InSight Mars Lander to examine 'Marsquakes,' set to launch on May 5

InSight, NASA's spacecraft, is gearing up for a pre-dawn flight to Mars to study the interior of the planet.

The Insight Mars Lander is scheduled for its launch from the California Coast to the plains of Mars on May 5 at 4:05 am

InSight will be the first ever mission to dig deep beneath the surface of Mars to study the interior by calculating its heat output and recording the marsquakes, which are events similar to earthquakes on planet Earth.

The 800-pound (360 kg) spacecraft - its name is short for Interior Exploration Using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport. 

It will record and use the seismic waves generated by marsquakes to chart out a map of the planet’ deep interior.

The results will help scientists understand the behaviour of Mars and how it was created.

Also Insight Launch Week is being held from May 2 to May 5. The launch week is underway at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, where the spacecraft will be launched on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V Rocket on Saturday.

As a part of the launch week, NASA is holding 'Insight Mars Roadshow'.

"We are going on the road and coming to a city near you! Stop by, chat with NASA scientists and engineers, and learn about marsquakes, and how InSight will study in-depth the "inner space" of Mars: its crust, mantle and core," NASA announced on its website - mars.nasa.gov.

InSight is part of the Discovery program, which aims to conduct focused, lower-cost missions with input from the public.

On the same rocket, NASA will launch its technology experiment called Mars Cube One (MarCO).

MarCO consists of two mini-spacecraft and will be the first ever test of CubeSat technology in space.