NASA Marslander InSight landed successfully on the red planet – IT Pro – News

The NASA space agency confirmed that the Marslander InSight satellite, launched in May, had successfully landed on the red planet. As far as we know based on the data, everything went well. The LG will perform mainly soil research on Mars.

At 20:54 Dutch time, NASA reported that InSight data indicate that the Marslander was landed on Mars. The landing site is Elysium Planitia, a flat plain chosen to increase the chances of landing safely. InSight will primarily conduct research on the inside of the planet.

After confirmation of the landing on the surface of Mars, it was still not clear in what state the landing gear was, but clarity was established at 9:01 pm: InSight reported by a long-awaited signal that everything is working normally. On Tuesday at 2:35 am Dutch time, the final signal that the solar panels have been properly deployed must be received.

The descent into the atmosphere and the landing procedure are undoubtedly the most difficult moments of the journey of InSight, which is already slightly less than seven months. NASA had no idea what was happening exactly in real time during the LG department. Indeed, the landing procedure took about seven minutes and the landing gear signals take a little over eight minutes to reach the Earth.

Since the upper layer of the Mars atmosphere, at an altitude of about 128 km, InSight has come down in 6.5 minutes and has not been able to. is found on the ground. The spacecraft entered the atmosphere at a speed of 19,800 km / h, with temperatures reaching 1,500 degrees Celsius. Once at a speed of about 1367 km / h, the supersonic parachute was opened, the heat shield was removed and the landing legs unfolded. Then the landing radar was activated and the gearbox of the landing gear and the parachute fell off. Finally, twelve landing engines were turned on to allow InSight to land safely.

InSight was primarily launched to answer questions regarding the structure and energy of the interior of the planet Mars. To learn more about this, the Marslander will measure, among other things, the thickness of the cost, the size and the density of the core. Insight also explores the amount of heat released by the planet and the speed of seismic waves in the mantle. The latter is an indication of the structure of the mantle; it is the layer that lies directly under the crust.