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PASADENA, Calif. • Applause and applause broke out at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, when an unmanned undercarriage at the waist, called InSight, landed on Mars, putting an end to a journey of nearly seven years from conception to launch.
The spectacular arrival of the $ 993 million ($ 1.4 billion) spacecraft – designed to listen to earthquakes and earthquakes as a way to unravel the inner mysteries of the red planet, how it was formed billions of years ago and, by extension, how other rocky planets such as The Earth took shape – marked the eighth successful landing on Mars of the 39th century. history of NASA.
"Touchdown confirmed," said a mission control operator at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, as worry and excitement ebbed from day to day in the room and as dozens of scientists rose to kiss him.
"It was intense and you could feel that emotion," said director Jim Bridenstine afterwards on Nasa television.
Mr Bridenstine also said that President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence had watched on television and called to congratulate the US Space Agency.
"In the end, the day is approaching when we will land humans on Mars," said Bridenstine, adding that the goal was to do so by the mid – 2030s.
The vehicle seemed in good condition, according to the first communications received from the Martian surface.
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Milestones
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MARCH 3 (1971)
The March 3 Mars of the Soviet Union is the first spacecraft to land on Mars – December 2, 1971. It fails shortly after landing.
VIKING 1 (1976)
NASA's Viking 1 is the first US spacecraft to successfully land on Mars – July 20, 1976. The Viking Lander 2 reaches Mars on September 3, 1976.
MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR (1997)
Mars Global Surveyor of Nasa landed on September 11, 1997. It was silent in November 2006.
MARS PATHFINDER (1997)
Nasa Mars Pathfinder lands on July 4, 1997. His mission includes the first successful rover on Mars, called Sojourner.
SPIRIT AND OPPORTUNITY (2004)
NASA's Martian rover, nicknamed Spirit, landed on January 3, 2004, three weeks before her twin, Opportunity, landed on the other side of the planet.
PHOENIX (2008)
The Phoenix Mars Lander lands on May 25, 2008. It is part of NASA's scout program for smaller and less expensive spacecraft. It is designed to study water in the Martian Arctic and search for a habitable area.
CURIOSITY (2012)
Nasa's Curiosity, the largest and most powerful of the Martian rovers, lands on August 6, 2012 to answer the question: has Mars already had the proper conditions to support microbes? He detected methane in the atmosphere. Source: CNN, NASA
But, as one could expect, the dust raised during the landing masked the first photo returned by InSight, which was very dark.
The National Center for Space Studies (CNES) of France has made the seismic landing experience for the interior structure of the LG, the key element to detect tremors earthen.
The principal researcher on the French seismometer, Professor Philippe Lognonne, said he was "relieved and very happy" with the result.
"I just received confirmation that there are no pebbles in front of the lander," he said.
And in a crucial last phase, NASA told InSight that its solar panels – two 2.2-meter wide solar panels – had opened and captured sunlight on the surface of Mars.
"The InSight team can rest a little easier … now that we know that the spacecraft's solar panels are deployed and are recharging the batteries," said Tom Hoffman, Project Manager d & # 39; InSight.
The space shuttle is the first NASA to land on Earth's neighboring planet since the installation of the Curiosity rover in 2012.
More than half of the 43 attempts to reach Mars with mobile devices, orbiters, and space agency probes around the world failed.
NASA invests in these robotic missions to prepare for the first human explorers related to Mars in the 2030s.
"We're never taking Mars for granted – Mars is difficult," said Dr Thomas Zurbuchen, deputy administrator of NASA, who heads the scientific mission, on Sunday.
The stinging phase of entry, descent and landing began Tuesday at 3:47 am Singapore time at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, where the Mars InSight mission control is located.
A carefully orchestrated sequence – fully preprogrammed aboard the spaceship – took place over the next few minutes, called "six and a half minutes of terror".
Accelerating to a speed of more than one bullet at 19,800 km / h, the thermally protected undercarriage encountered a burning friction as it entered the Mars atmosphere.
The heat shield reached a temperature of about 1500 ° C before being rejected, the three landing legs unfolded and the parachute came out, allowing InSight to reach the Martian surface.
InSight contains key instruments provided by several European space agencies.
In addition to the French CNES, the German Aerospace Center provided an automatic perforation mole that can dig 5 meters into the surface – further than any instrument before – to measure heat flow.
The Centro de Astrobiologia de España has manufactured the wind sensors of the probe and three of the InSight seismic instruments have been designed and manufactured in Britain.
The Space Research Center of the Polish Academy of Sciences and Astronika and the Swiss Institute of Technology have also made significant contributions.
The goal is to map the interior of Mars in three dimensions, "so we understand the interior of Mars as well as the outside of Mars," said Dr. Bruce Banerdt, the chief InSight investigator at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
FRANCE MEDIA AGENCY
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