Mars probe faces daunting challenge to land safely

Nasa braced for attempt to slow spacecraft from 12,000mph to 5mph for soft touchdown

Nasa engineers will on Monday initiate a manoeuvre that is their least favourite activity in space: they will attempt to land a robot spaceship on Mars.

In this case they will attempt to set down their probe, InSight, gently on to an area known as Elysium Planitia where it is intended to analyse seismic activity on the red planet.