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OUT OF THIS WORLD | What's Up In Space – The Biggest News From Space On Earth
Scott Sutherland
Meteorologist / Scientific Editor
Friday, October 26, 2018, 6:40 pm – In just one month, NASA's InSight lander will plunge into the Martian atmosphere for a seven-minute journey to the surface of the red planet. In addition, a new idea of orbiting a spacecraft around Pluto and the last days of NASA's exoplanets fighter. That's what's new in the space!
SEVEN MINUTES OF INSIGHT TERROR
A little over 6 years ago, NASA's Curiosity rover had its human limbs on the edge of their seats, as it performed a fully automated, computer-controlled descent from the top of the atmosphere to the surface of the aircraft. March.
According to Tom Rivellini, engineer at Entry, Descent & Landing (EDL), the landing at Curiosity called "Seven Minutes of Terror", "because it's us literally stays seven minutes to go from the top of the atmosphere to the surface of Mars. 13,000 km / h to zero, in a perfect sequence, a perfect choreography, a perfect synchronization, and the computer has to do it all alone, without the help of the ground.If only one thing does not work properly, it's the end of the game. "
At the time, Adam Steltzner, chief engineer of the EDL division, added that because of the distance between the Earth and Mars, the communication time was 14 minutes. So, with the seven-minute descent to the surface, by the time NASA received the signal sent by Curiosity just as it was reaching the top of the Mars atmosphere, it had just begun its descent, the rover was already on the ground for seven minutes, either in one piece, ready to receive orders, or in a thousand pieces, scattered in the Martian landscape.
Today, October 26, 2018, a group of EDL engineers are no longer In 1 month to go through another seven minutes filled with anxiety.
The InSight lander, NASA's mission which is to probe March March for the interior of March, is expected to reach the red planet on November 26th. In doing so, he will make the same descent of "seven minutes of terror" towards the surface of Mars. slowdown from 21,200 km / h (13,200 miles to the hour) at the top of the atmosphere, to zero at the surface.
The only big differences between Curiosity and InSight landings are 1) Insight will make a direct landing on Mars, using its own propellers, rather than the "celestial crane" method used by Curiosity, and 2) Mars will only be there. to eight minutes of light from Earth, so when NASA receives the signal that InSight has begun its descent, it will be on the surface, "alive" or "dead," for about a minute.
This illustrated sequence shows the stages of the descent of Mars Insight. Credit: NASA JPL
Without the added complication of the open-air crane, the InSight landing will look a lot like the one done by NASA's Phoenix mission, which landed in May 2008. Nevertheless, according to NASA, Phoenix has landed at an altitude lower than that of InSight. It took a mile and a half of extra air to fly over, to help braking, which InSight will have. Even with the extremely thin atmosphere of Mars (compared to Earth), an extra mile 1.5 really help.
Fortunately, the InSight parachute is much stronger than the Phoenix, with reinforced support cables. He will therefore deploy earlier in the landing, which will allow him more time to slow the descent of InSight.
To learn more about InSight, check out the NASA website and stay tuned for other InSight content in the coming weeks.
Revolutionary idea for the return to Pluto
When NASA's New Horizon Space Shuttle flew over Pluto and its moons more than three years ago, it gave us a frustrating and brief glimpse into these remarkable worlds.
These almost true-to-life looks on Pluto and Charon were captured as New Horizons pbaded by these worlds in July 2015. Photo: NASA / JHUAPL / SwRI
As surprising as it may seem to see Pluto, Charon and the small moons so close, we still needed them. Much more!
Now, a team from the Southwest Research Institute, led by Dr. Alan Stern – the same global scientist at the helm of the New Horizons mission – has come up with a new idea for a Pluto mission. However, it would be better to place a spacecraft in orbit around the Pluto system and use the gravity of Pluto's largest moon, Charon, to propel it into this region of space, in order to conduct a thorough investigation of the system. .
According to SwRI:
The team first discovered that many key scientific objectives could be achieved through the gravitational badistance of Pluto's giant satellite, Charon, rather than a thruster, thus allowing the orbiter to change its orbit to several times to study various aspects of Pluto, its atmosphere, its five moons and solar wind interactions for several years. The second realization shows that after reaching its scientific objectives at Pluto, the orbiter can then use Charon's gravity to escape the system without using fuel, launching the spacecraft into the Kuiper belt in order to use the same electric propulsion system that he had usually come into orbit at Pluto. Then explore other dwarf planets and smaller bodies of the Kuiper Belt.
CLICK TO ENLARGE. These "spaghetti" of complicated lines represent the use by this satellite of Charon's gravity (rather than its own fuel) to launch it around the Pluto system, and far enough to investigate other targets. may be nearby. Credit: Southwest Research Institute
"It's revolutionary," Stern said in SwRI's press release. "Previously, NASA and the global scientific community thought that the next step in exploring the Kuiper Belt would be to choose between" deepening "the study of Pluto and its moons or" expanding "by examining smaller objects from the Kuiper belt and another dwarf planet – a comparison with Pluto The global scientific community has been debating the next step, and our studies show that you can do both in one mission – it's a game changer. "
THE LAST GASP OF TELESCOPE KEPLER?
The NASA Kepler telescope has uncovered thousands of planets orbiting other stars, and thousands of others are waiting "behind the scenes" to be confirmed. Scientists and scientific citizens also need more data to explore and locate more.
NASA's Kepler Space Telescope follows behind the Earth, in its orbit around the Sun, while searching for "transits" indicators indicating the presence of planets around other stars. Credit: NASA
This week, however, after months of exploiting the full scientific potential of this telescope, we seem to have heard our last testimony from Kepler.
According to the latest NASA Kepler update dated October 23:
Following the successful return of data from the last observation campaign, the Kepler team ordered the spacecraft to position itself to start collecting data for its next campaign. On Friday, October 19, during a regular contact with a satellite using the NASA Deep Space Network, the team learned that the satellite had gone into standby mode without using fuel. Kepler's team is evaluating the cause and possible next steps.
Since the telescope has, for the most part, worked on fumes, the odds that it is simply the end of its mission are probably very high.
With the launch of TESS, NASA's transiting observation satellite in transit, which may have already found its first exoplanet, the moment is certainly well chosen to pbad the torch after two very successful missions.
Sources: NASA | SwRI | NASA
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