Werner Gruber lands on Mars

After their spectacular landing on the red planet in the probe "InSight", everything went as planned: as announced Monday the US NASA space agency (local time), she received the signal that "InSight" had been covered by its awnings. As Mars landing maneuvers are rarely successful, NASA employees previously euphorically celebrated the arrival of InSight.

austro mission

Austrians are also involved: the geophysicist Günter Kargl (52) from the Graz Institute for Space Research (IMF) participated in the development of the probe (see interview). It will also evaluate the data sent by Insight over the next two years. "The most important thing is," says Kargl in AUSTRIA, "all systems work."

With "Insight", Werner Gruber also landed on Mars. The well-known physicist sent a coin bearing his name during the Mars mission.

The two round solar sails of "InSight" with a diameter of about 2.20 meters have already captured sunlight on Mars, NASA said. On a clear day, they can generate 700 watts of energy for the probe. "The team" InSight "can rest a little easier tonight, now that we know that the sun visors are off and recharge the batteries," said Tom Hoffmann, InSight Project Manager. .

First photos

A few minutes later, "InSight" has already sent a first photo of the red planet. Although the photo is very fuzzy, it was probably due to the dust clouds raised during the landing. In the coming days, "InSight" could be busy finding suitable locations to place its gauges with a robotic arm.

NASA boss Jim Bridenstine obviously drew the courage of the successful landing for future missions on Mars: "In the end, the day will come when we will land people on Mars," he said.

A landing maneuver on Mars is so complicated that only 40% of the previous missions on the most inland planets of our solar system have been successful. As a result, NASA had spoken of the "six and a half minutes of horror" before landing "InSight". The landing was preceded by a journey of nearly seven years from the spacecraft probe.

Red planet

At a speed of 19,800 km / h, it entered the atmosphere of Mars, the temperature of its heat shield reaching 1,500 degrees Celsius. After the probe dropped the shield, her three legs and parachute came out and she floated gently up to the surface of Mars.

Over the next two years, scientists wish to use the stationary geophysical observatory "InSight" to study for the first time inside Mars and its structure. This should be measured the possible shocks and earthquakes on the planet. The researchers hope to discover, among other things, how Mars appeared billions of years ago.