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NASA Rover Curiosity artist concept approaching Mars before successfully landing in 2012. Image via NASA / JPL-Caltech.
Engineers and scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., Are working hard this weekend to prepare another bold attempt to land a spacecraft at the surface of the planet Mars. The InSight spacecraft, designed to study the interior of Mars, is scheduled to land on Monday, November 26, 2018 (details on surveillance here). This will be NASA's attempt at landing on the 10th of March, and NASA has for the most part been successful. But, because of its weak atmosphere, Mars globally has a a lot success rate of spacecraft landings less than Earth, Moon or Venus. And with other countries in the world, NASA has failed. And that's why Thomas Zurbuchen, deputy administrator of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA's headquarters in Washington, said late last week in a statement:
Landing on Mars is difficult. It takes talent, concentration and years of preparation …
No doubt about it, the Monday landing attempt on Mars will be a nagging nail. Take into account speed the craft must hit the atmosphere of Mars then, in a very short period of time, slow down enough to land. When NASA's InSight Space Shuttle reaches the top of the Martian atmosphere on Monday, it will travel at 12,300 km / h (19,800 km / h). During his descent into the atmosphere of Mars, he must slow down to 8 km / h (about the speed of jogging) before his three legs touch the Martian soil.
This extreme deceleration must occur in just under seven minutes, according to a schedule known to NASA engineers:
… Seven minutes of terror.
In seven minutes, the InSight lander must deploy its parachute and landing legs, locate the surface using radar instruments and fire 12 engines to help slow it down. All these actions are preprogrammed because, because of the speed of light, NASA engineers can not change the procedure in case of a problem. They can not even follow the descent in real time.
In fact, traveling at the speed of light (186,000 miles per second or about 300,000 km per second), signals from the InSight ship will take about eight minutes to reach the Earth. This means that when NASA engineers – and the rest of us – learn that InSight has reached the top of the Mars atmosphere, the landing gear will have landed or crashed.
Why is it so hard to land on Mars? The video below, taken from MinutePhysics, explains the situation very well.
InSight is synonymous with inland exploration using seismic surveys, geodesy and heat transport. This is the first mission designed to study the deep interior of Mars. InSight took off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in central California on May 5, 2018 and, to this day, engineers have described InSight's flight to Mars as "no history". But, according to Rob Grover, about his entry, descent and landing:
Engineers call a landing on Mars "seven minutes of terror". We can not use the joystick to land. We must therefore rely on the commands we have preprogrammed in the spacecraft. We spent years testing our plans, learning more landings on Mars and studying all the conditions that Mars can impose on us. And we will remain vigilant until InSight settles in its region of Elysium Planitia.
How will NASA engineers and scientists know that the craft has landed safely? Read more: How will NASA know when InSight will land?
Want more details on the landing? The video below is for you:
Lori Glaze, acting director of the Planetary Science Division at NASA headquarters, said:
Landing on Mars is exciting, but scientists look forward to the day after the arrival of InSight. Once InSight is installed on the Red Planet and its instruments are deployed, it will begin to collect valuable information about the structure of the deep inside of Mars – information that will help us understand the training and the training. Evolution of all rocky planets, including the one we call our country. .
Sue Smrekar, the deputy chief investigator of the InSight mission at JPL, added:
Previous missions have not exceeded the goals of Mars. InSight scientists are eager to explore the heart of Mars.
Read the EarthSky 2016 article on this topic: Landing on Mars is difficult
Read more: List of unsuccessful and successful Mars missions
Monday, November 26 … Watch Insight March Landing
This is where InSight will arrive on Monday
The InSight spacecraft will travel at 12,800 km / h (19,800 km / h) when it reaches the top of the March atmosphere on Monday. It will have to slow down to 5 mph (8 km / h) before touchdown. Image via NASA.
Bottom Line: Landing on Mars is difficult. Look on Monday November 26, 2018, the NASA InSight lander, designed to study the interior of Mars, is trying to land.
Via NASA
The lunar calendars 2019 are here! Order yours before they leave. Makes a great gift.
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