NASA Wins 2nd Emmy for Mars Landing

September 15 marked the second time NASA bagged an Emmy Award for covering InSight’s outstanding footage of the Mars landing. NASA received a Creative Arts Emmy for Outstanding Original Interactive Program. The InSight Mars Lander is tasked with learning more about the Red Planet’s interior body and providing accurate 3D models. 

NASA officials at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory couldn’t be more excited with their win, stating the following on their official Twitter handle “Thank you for honoring our multimedia efforts to share the NASA insight mission to Mars”. Click here to check out their JPL’s official Twitter page. 

Only one day prior, NASA received their first Emmy alongside SpaceX for Outstanding Interactive Program thanks to the interactive coverage of Crew Dragon’s launch, docking, orbital rendezvous, reentry, and eventual splashdown. 

Both these victories are a result of years of preparation for multiple live broadcasts using NASA and Space X facilities to cover each phase of their journey.  

Space has always held a special place in movies with similar projects easily receiving coveted prizes. This includes CBS’s Star Trek: Discovery which received an Emmy for Outstanding Prosthetic Makeup. 

The InSight Lander has already started showing promise by discovering mysterious magnetic pulses on the planet that weren’t previously recorded. This suggests that the Martian crust has more power behind its magnetic pulses than scientists previously expected. In another discovery, the Lander picked up on an electrically conductive layer that measures 2.5 miles in thickness.  

Scientists believe this layer could hint at the possibility of Mars having an underwater reservoir of flowing liquid water. On earth, we have similar features with groundwater locked up in soil, rocks, and sand. If a water body is eventually found underneath Mars, it could give us clues about the potential for life, both past, and present.