NASA InSight lander landed safely on Mars

A major feat in the field of interplanetary space travel took place on Monday. NASA's InSight satellite landed on Mars to begin its two-year study on the core of our neighboring planet. This is NASA's first landing on Mars since Curiosity rover took off in 2012.

After a 300-million-kilometer journey, the lander landed at around 14:54 ET and took this picture from its site. landing. (There is a dust cover on the lens covered with debris, but you can still see the ground and the horizon on Mars, and finally the dust cover will be removed and we will have clearer images of # 39; InSight.)

NASA / JPL

You can watch NASA's live mission control feed in the video below.

That's why the landing was so painful: because the spacecraft is so far away, scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory mission in California could not fly InSight. Radio transitions to the LG are delayed by several minutes. And like the Curiosity rover, InSight had to land in just 6.5 minutes.

It only remains to wait a few hours for confirmation of the opening of InSight solar panels.

It is not easy to land on Mars with a robotic robot

It is a huge technical feat that to land on Mars, and not just to millions of kilometers away.

The Challenge: Red Planet has almost the same gravitational appeal. as Earth, but unlike the Earth, it does not have a thick atmosphere to help slow spacecraft. InSight touched the Martian atmosphere, traveling at 12,300 mph, and in 6.5 minutes it had to slow down to 5 mph to land.

The landing took place in a few steps carefully planned by NASA scientists. First, InSight broke away from the mission's "cruising stage". This is the part of the craft that transported it from Earth to Mars, and Insight had to leave it in space.

Then, Insight had to get going so that its heat shield was blindly directed at the atmosphere, which started about 70 miles to the surface of the planet.

NASA / JPL-Caltech

This heat shield protected it when it slowed from 12 300mph to 1000mph in just two minutes. Then, 10 miles above the surface, he dropped the heat shield and deployed a parachute. But the parachute was not enough to slow the speed of the machine to land.

It was the most heartbreaking part: InSight had to land itself and be ready to face less than ideal conditions, like a dust storm.

About a kilometer above Mars, InSight drops the parachute and lights a few thrusters. He had to maneuver quickly to avoid touching the dropped parachute.

Driven by the radar, InSight used its thrusters to slow down its soft landing. On landing, thrusters must be extinguished immediately. (If Insight were topple to the surface, it would not be possible to retake it.)

NASA / JPL-Caltech

InSight landed on a region of Mars called Elysium Planitia, a vast and flat plain located at the equator. The site was chosen, in part, because InSight will run on solar energy and had to be near the equator to have enough sunlight to stay energized for two years.

So, what is InSight going to do?

Now that InSight has landed, it stays in place. It's not a mobile like Curiosity. And he does not need to move because he is not there to study the surface of Mars. InSight is synonymous with indoor exploration using seismic surveys, geodesy and heat transport, and it allows to study the core of Mars. It's basically a geological robot. With the help of extremely sensitive instruments, he will be able to literally feel the seismic activity and temperature of the planet and record, for the first time, "Marsquakes".

"Each earthquake would be like a light bulb illuminating the structure of the interior of the planet. , Explains NASA. "By studying the mode of transmission of seismic waves through the different layers of the planet (the crust, the mantle and the nucleus), scientists can deduce the depth of these layers and their composition. In this way, seismology looks like a radiograph of the interior of Mars.

Insight will also take the temperature of Mars; The heat flow and physical properties sensor drives 16 feet into the surface. The instrument will be able to determine how heat flows from Mars's nucleus to its surface and help scientists understand if the Earth and Mars nuclei are formed in the same way.

NASA / JPL

All of this is important to study because scientists want to better understand how rocky planets like Mars, Earth and Venus are formed. Below the surface of the Earth is a melt-on mantle on which our continental mbades (tectonic plates) float. Plate tectonics is responsible for much of the geological activity on Earth, generating the energy needed for earthquakes and volcanoes. But Mars has no tectonics as active as ours.

Scientists are curious to know why a rocky planet such as the Earth is so geologically dynamic and why a rocky planet such as Mars is so relatively motionless. Maybe this information will help to better understand why there is life on Earth but not Mars.