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InSight, NASA's $ 993 million lander, is followed by two mini-spacecraft.
Applause and applause broke out Monday at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. on the red planet and manages to return his first photo.
The dramatic landing of a belt-height spacecraft crowned a journey of nearly seven years, ranging from spacecraft design to launch, via the touchdown, for the eighth successful landing. on NASA in the history of NASA.
"Touchdown confirmed," said a mission control operator at NASA, while pent-up anxiety and excitement invaded the room and as dozens of scientists were rising to stand up. to kiss.
According to the first communications received from the Martian surface, the vehicle appeared in good condition.
Next, InSight must open its solar panels, because NASA will wait later in the afternoon to find out if this crucial and crucial phase
The goal of Mars InSight is to d & # 39; listen to earthquakes and tremors to uncover the mysteries of the red planet, how it formed billions of years ago and, by extension, how other rocky planets like the Earth took shape. .
This probe is NASA's first attempt to land on the planet next to Earth since the arrival of the Curiosity robot in 2012.
More than half of the 43 attempts to reach Mars with rovers, orbiters and probes conducted by space agencies around the world The world has failed.
NASA is the only space agency to have created it. She is invested in these robotic missions to prepare the first human explorers related to Mars in the 2030s.
"We never take Mars for granted – Mars is difficult," said Thomas Zurbuchen, Deputy Executive Director, on Sunday. from the scientific mission to NASA.
"An absolutely terrifying thought"
The phase of penetration, descent and landing began at 11:47 (1940 GMT) at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, in California, Mission Control headquarters for Mars InSight.
A carefully orchestrated sequence – already fully preprogrammed aboard the spaceship – has unfolded over the many following minutes, called "six and a half minutes of terror".
Faster than a bullet at 19,300 kilometers (12,300 miles), the armored vehicle against heat encountered a blistering friction when it entered the atmosphere of Mars.
The heat shield reached a temperature of 2700 degrees Fahrenheit (about 1500 degrees Celsius) before being thrown to the ground, the three landing legs unfolded and the parachute came out, allowing InSight to go down to the Martian surface.
The emotion, "said NASA's executive director Jim Bridenstine in an interview with NASA television.
Objective: 3D map of Inner Mars
InSight contains key instruments provided by several European space agencies
The French National Space Research Center (CNES) has created the SEIS instrument (Experimental Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure), key element for detecting earthquakes
The German Aerospace Center (DLR) provided a self-pounding mole can dig into the surface up to five meters deep – more than any other instrument before – to measure the heat flux
The Spanish Center for Astrobiology (Spain) has manufactured the spacecraft wind sensors.
The Space Research Center has also made a contribution p of the Academy of Sciences of Poland and Astronika, the Swiss Institute of Technology and Imperial College London and the University of Oxford, Great Britain.
Together, these instruments will study geological processes, said Bruce Ban Erdt, principal investigator of InSight at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Listening to the tremors on Mars, whether caused by earthquakes, meteor impacts or even volcanic activity, scientists can learn more about its interior and reveal the structure of the planet.
The goal is to map the interior of Mars in three dimensions, "so we understand inside Mars as well as we have come to understand the outside of Mars", Banerdt told the press.
(This story was not edited by NDTV staff and generated automatically from a syndicated feed.)
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