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Photo provided by NASA on November 26, 2018 shows the first image taken by the NASA InSight lander on the surface of Mars after landing. NASA's InSight spacecraft landed Monday on Mars, en route for a two-year mission to explore the deep inside of the red planet. (Xinhua / NASA / JPL-CALTECH)
LOS ANGELES, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) – NASA's InSight spacecraft landed at Mars on Monday, en route for a two-year mission to explore Deep interior of the red planet.
According to NASA's live online broadcast, InSight landed on Mars around 14:54. EAST (1954 GMT) Monday after a trip of 480 million kilometers (300 million miles) over six months.
The LG plunged into the thin Martian atmosphere around 2:47 pm. EST (1947 GMT), heat shield first, then slow down with a supersonic parachute. Then he fired his retro rockets to slowly descend to the surface of Mars and landed on the smooth plains of Elysium Planitia.
The landing took a little less than seven minutes, which gave the nickname "seven minutes of terror". 19659003] InSight is followed on Mars by two mini-spacecraft including Mars Cube One (MarCO) of NASA, the first deep-space mission for CubeSats, which attempts to relay InSight data when 39, it enters the atmosphere and lands of the planet.
around 3 pm MarCO returned the first image of Mars (1965 GMT).
This photo is dotted with black dots – probably dust particles collected during the atrocious descent of InSight into the Martian atmosphere, said Rob Manning, chief engineer of NASA. Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).
The future InSight images will be much clearer, once the dust cover is removed, he added.
InSight will detect geophysical signals below the Martian surface, including earthquakes and heat. Scientists will also be able to track radio signals from the immobile spaceship, which vary depending on the jitter in the rotation of Mars, according to NASA.
InSight and MarCO flight controllers monitored and encouraged the successful entry, descent and landing of the spacecraft. Mission Control at JPL in Pasadena, California
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine told a press conference after landing that Germany and France were major partners in the mission InSight.
Several European partners, including the French National Center for Space Studies. (CNES) and the German Aerospace Center (DLR) support the InSight mission.
CNES provided the seismic research instrument for interior structures (SEIS), and the DLR provided the instrument for measuring heat flow and physical properties (HP3). .
It took about four to five years for the InSight team to design and execute the mission, said a mission control engineer.
He stated that the basic design of InSigh He was inherited from the Phoenix spacecraft, which landed on Mars on May 25, 2008.
To deeply explore the planet, the lander must to be in a place where he can remain motionless and silent for the duration of his mission. That's why the scientists chose Elysium Planitia as the residence of InSight, according to NASA.
The red planet is relatively easy to land and is less likely to melt our equipment than Venus or Mercury, according to NASA.
Launched May 5, InSight marks NASA's first landing on Earth since the Curiosity rover in 2012 and the first dedicated to the study of the deep interior of Mars.
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