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Bruce Murray Space Image Library

A Mars-like sandbox

A Mars-like sandbox
A Mars-like sandbox Engineers Marleen Sundgaard (left) and Pranay Mishra measure their test lander's "workspace" -- the terrain where scientists want to set InSight's instruments -- in the In Situ Instrument Laboratory (ISIL) at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Making sure each feature of the workspace on Mars is mimicked here on Earth allows for more reliable tests to be performed before actually setting down InSight's instruments. NASA / JPL-Caltech