A geological robot successfully lands on Mars

Monday night, the long journey of more than six months of the US probe InSight has ended. Around 8:47 pm, Dutch time, he began his descent towards the surface of Mars. Eight minutes later came the word redeemer: InSight had landed successfully. Five minutes after landing, the probe sent a first picture of the planet's surface. The result made the difference between a "zeperd" of nearly one billion dollars and an investigation mission that should help to better understand the inside of the planet.

InSight began descending into a kite-shaped armor equipped with an advanced heat shield. . This was to protect him from the forces and temperature extremes that occurred when he was traveling through the atmosphere at a speed of nearly 20,000 km / h in the Mars atmosphere.

Watch the NASA broadcast on the landing here: ]

The atmosphere of Mars is certainly very rarefied, but it had to slow down the probe so that its speed is only 1500 km / h four minutes later, 12 km above the surface of the planet. . It was slow enough to unfold a 13-meter parachute, which further slowed down InSight. Shortly after, the heat shield was pushed back and the landing legs unfolded.

Loosening

At a height of over one kilometer, InSight then had to detach from its armor and parachute to begin the final phase of landing. Twelve brake rockets finally reduced Marslander speed to 8 km / h. As expected, it landed smoothly at 20:54 Dutch time.

The whole process was unrolled automatically. Terrestrial interventions are simply not possible because Mars is only 150 million kilometers from us. This results in a delay of eight minutes on the radio link with the space probe.

Together with InSight, two mini-probes were sent to Mars on May 5th. These could transmit the current data from the landing procedure to the ground. This did not work, otherwise they could still be transmitted a few hours later by the Mars reconnaissance orbiter making the rounds of Mars since 2006.

No Cart

InSight n & # 39; is not a "cart" that will travel the surface of the planet. After landing, the probe will simply stay where it landed: the plain safe, but boring, Elysium Planitia – "the largest parking on Mars", according to NASA

To read also: A geological robot on the Mars Road

The Marslander has with it a whole set of scientific instruments. He must deploy this equipment to the surface with his robot arm after landing. It's a tedious process that will take two to three months.

To reduce the risk of accidents, NASA has a replica of InSight, Jet Propulsion Lab of Pasadena. The replica will be positioned exactly like his distant twin brother after landing. In this way, it is possible to determine the best way to design the instruments.