NASA's InSight sends signals to Earth after landing on Mars and deploys solar panels – Xinhua

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) – NASA's InSight spacecraft sent signals to the Earth after its successful landing on Mars, indicating that its solar panels are open and capture sunlight on the Martian surface.

NASA Mars Orbiter Mars Odyssey relayed the signals as well as images showing the landing site of InSight, according to a NASA statement released Tuesday.

The deployment of solar panels allows the spacecraft to recharge its batteries every day.

"The InSight team can rest a bit easier tonight, now that we know that the spacecraft's solar panels are deployed and are recharging the batteries," said Tom Hoffman, InSight Project Manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

He stated that an interesting new chapter had been opened for InSight: Surface Operations and the beginning of the deployment phase of the instruments.

According to NASA, the two InSight solar panels measure 2.2 meters wide each. When they are open, the entire undercarriage is about the size of a large 1960s convertible.

The sunlight of Mars is weaker than that of the Earth because it is much farther from the Sun. But the undercarriage does not need a lot to work. The panels provide 600 to 700 watts on a clear day, enough to keep the InSight instruments capable of leading the science on the red planet, NASA said.

The panels are inspired by those used with NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander, although those from InSight are slightly larger. to provide more power output and to increase their structural strength. According to NASA, these changes were necessary to support operations for a full year (two Earth years) on Mars.

In the coming days, the mission team will detach the robot arm from InSight and use the built-in camera to take pictures of the ground. that engineers can decide where to place the scientific instruments of the spacecraft. It will take two to three months before these instruments are fully deployed and return the data.

InSight will use its weather sensors and magnetometer to take measurements of its landing site at Elysium Planitia, its new home on Mars.

The InSight probe landed safely on Mars on Monday after a six-month, 300-million-kilometer (480-million-kilometer) trip, to launch its two-year mission to explore the depths of the sea. inside of another world.

Launched on May 5, InSight marks NASA's first landing on Mars since the Curiosity rover in 2012 and the first dedicated to the study of the deep interior of Mars.