The hollow probe for deeper information

A few minutes after landing on Mars, the NASA InSight spacecraft returned a "nice and dirty" snapshot of his new digs. Yet, the dust-stained image looked like a work of art for scientists.

The photo revealed a mostly smooth, sandy terrain around the probe with only one large visible rock.

"I'm really very happy that it seems like we have an incredibly safe and boring landing place," said project manager Tom Hoffman after Monday's touchdown. "That's exactly what we were looking for."

A better picture came hours later and we expect more in the coming days, after the dust covers will be detached from the cameras of the Lander.

The probe arrived on Mars after a perilous and supersonic dive in its red sky that took only six minutes.

"Touchdown confirmed!" A flight controller was called just before 3:00 pm Eastern time, relieving scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, who were anxiously waiting for the word to be heard to travel 160 millions of kilometers.

It was the eighth successful NASA landing on Mars since the 1976 Viking soundings, and the first in six years. The NASA Curiosity rover, which arrived in 2012, is still moving on Mars. Because of the distance between Earth and Mars, the confirmation took eight minutes, relayed by a pair of tiny satellites that followed InSight throughout the journey of 482 million kilometers traveled in six months.

"Flawless," said Rob Manning, chief engineer of JPL. "Sometimes things work in your favor."

InSight, a billion-dollar international project, includes a German mole that will dig a depth of 5 meters to measure Mars' internal heat.

The lander also has a French seismometer to measure earthquakes, if they exist in our smaller and geologically quieter neighbor. Another experiment will calculate the oscillation of Mars to reveal the composition of the planet's nucleus.

Late Monday, NASA announced that the vital solar panels of the probe were open and charging his batteries. During the next "soils" – or 24-hour Martian days, 39½ minutes – the flight controllers will evaluate the state of health of the equally important robot arm of InSight and its scientific instruments.

It will take months to configure and adjust the instruments, and senior scientist, Bruce Banerdt, said he was not expecting to receive a solid data stream by the end of next spring. Banerdt said that the first snapshot of InSight on the surface was the first scientific element, although "nice and dirty".

He said that the image would be cleaned up and the black spots would disappear. This picture came from a low camera on the undercarriage.

NASA has released a sharp photo taken by a top camera showing some of the LG and the landscape.

The 360 ​​kg InSight is off and will work in the same place for the next two years, a Martian year. "In the months and years to come, history books will be rewritten on the inside of March," said JPL director Michael Watkins.

NASA opted this time for a straightforward and straightforward approach, using a parachute and braking motors to move the speed of InSight at a speed of 19,800 km / h when it crossed the line. Martian atmosphere, at about 77,114 km, at 8 km / h to the touch.

The danger was that the spaceship could be consumed.

Many spacecraft bound for Mars launched by the United States, Russia and other countries have been lost or destroyed over the years, with a success rate of only 40%, not counting InSight.

InSight, three feet away, sits on the west side of Elysium Planitia, the plain that NASA was aiming for.

Museums, planetariums and libraries across the United States have organized viewing sessions to follow the events at the JPL. NASA's television coverage was also broadcast on the giant Times Square screen in New York, where the crowd huddled under umbrellas in the rain. "What an amazing day for our country," said Jim Bridenstine, who was presiding over his first landing on Mars as NASA boss.

The well-preserved interior of Mars provides a snapshot of what the Earth might look like since its formation, 4.5 billion years ago, according to Banerdt.

While Earth is seismic, Mars "decided to rest on its laurels" after its formation, he said.

By examining the interior of Mars, scientists hope to understand why the rocky planets of our solar system have turned out to be so different and why Earth has become a refuge for life.

NASA's next mission, the March 2020 rover, will be looking for rocks that may contain traces of ancient life.

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