How to land on Mars

After six months of traveling from Earth, the InSight Probe is on a precise trajectory to land on the red planet. 19659005] About three hours before landing, mission navigators will have one last chance to change the timing or alignment of InSight to avoid any dangerous Martian dust storm.

. Before InSight enters the Martian atmosphere, the spacecraft will separate from its solar panel cruise stage and switch to battery power.

Light and communications take 8 minutes and 7 seconds to reach Mars from Earth, so we will not know if the landing of InSight was a success or a failure until the end .

InSight will penetrate the thin Martian atmosphere at a speed of about 12,300 miles at the time .

must hit at an angle of 12 degrees to survive. Too stiff and InSight will burn; too shallow and it will jump into the atmosphere and return to space.

InSight will slow down quickly by ripping through the Martian atmosphere, then jump into supersonic. parachute about seven miles above the surface.

A pyrotechnic explosion will release the thermal shield of InSight, recently marked by the heat of entry. The shield is thicker than previous missions, in case InSight would be forced down under heavy dust.

Ten seconds later, more pyrotechnics will lengthen the three satellite shock absorbing legs. InSight will then turn on its ground-based radar.

Less than a minute before the landing, InSight will fall and gain a little further from his parachute. Back hull by free fall for a moment.

The lander will shoot 12 small rockets to slow down and move away from the falling parachute.

After stopping its horizontal motion, InSight will begin a smooth descent of approximately eight feet per second.

NASA is waiting to receive confirmation of landing on Monday around 14:53.

If InSight lands successfully, it will be the first landing on Mars since the Curiosity rover complex in 2012.

] InSight is targeting a vast equatorial plain called Elysium Planitia.

This plain could be used to create boring images, but it is considered an ideal. place of landing for a mission of study of the interior of the planet.

After waiting several minutes for the dust to dissipate before it disperses, InSight will deploy its two solar panels. [19659005] The lander will then spend a few days checking his systems and taking pictures of the landing site.

In the days and weeks after landing, InSight will make the surrounding dots, accurately measure and photograph the area surrounding the undercarriage , then carefully place three instruments on the Martian surface with the help of his robotic arm.

An extremely accurate seismometer placed under a protective dome monitors earthquakes and is detected by a thermal probe. the internal temperatures of the planet.

To learn more about what InSight hopes to learn about Mars, take a look at the mission below or explore InSight and Mars in Augmented Reality.

The Curiosity rover was laid in August 2012 at Gale Crater, about 340 km south of the site expected landing of InSight.

Curiosity is visible in the form of a small dot inside the dark landing spot above, where the shiny dust was on the surface washed away during the day. ;landing.

The InSight design borrows immensely from the success of the Phoenix Mission, which descended near the North Martian Pole in 2008.

An orbiting spacecraft photographed Phoenix and his parachute descending in front of the Heimdal crater above.

In 2016, the Lander Schiaparelli crashed on Mars after contradictory estimates of its altitude have lost their heat shield too early.

And in 2003, the Beagle 2 lander touched

Beagle 2 is the small white dot in the center of the image above.

Mars ran out of power, but could not communicate with Earth after failing to deploy all of its solar panels. elliptical orbit that brings it closer to the Earth every two years. The launch of InSight has been programmed in this window to reduce the travel time.

] Mars was at its closest point to the Earth at the end of July and will come back again in 2020 when the next rover (and the next helicopter) is launched.

The InSight trip to Mars was relatively quick, compared to other missions launched in this country. 2018. The BepiColombo satellite will take seven years to reach Mercury and the Parker solar probe will spend seven years sneaking to touch the sun.

Subscribe to the Science Times newsletter and synchronize your calendar with the solar system. 19659005] Sources: NASA; Jet propulsion laboratory; Caltech. Updated time estimates of the Planetary Society, although the exact times depend on the landing conditions. Images from NASA / JPL-Caltech unless otherwise noted.