Moon

In the early years of planetary exploration, seismometers operated on the Moon and on Mars. Between 1969 and 1972, seismometers we placed on the Moon directly by astronauts, and this network confirmed the occurrence of moonquakes on our neighbour. Both Viking landers in 1976 included seismometers - but unfortunately excessive noise (the sensors were not decoupled from the lander) and limited sensor frequency range means the presence of marsquakes was not confirmed.

It is a challenge to detect and extract high quality locations from a single station. If InSight is successful, it is hoped future missions to Mars will also include similar seismometers and a network of seismometers may be installed.