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WASHINGTON (AFP) – After landing safely on Mars after a nearly seven-month trip, NASA released the first images taken by its InSight spacecraft, which opened its solar panels to charge the batteries.
The $ 993 million ($ 1.4 billion) lander, which landed on Monday and appears to be in good shape, will soon begin deploying its robotic arm and deploying its earthquake sensors on the Martian surface. .
Nasa engineers are planning to start working with his robotic arm soon, but they are acting with caution.
The arm has five mechanical fingers to help him get up and place his two instruments on Martian soil in the coming months.
"Slowly releasing all my accumulated tension, starting with loosening my grappling hook, as these before-and-after images show," said NasaInSight's Twitter account.
"Until I'm ready to extend my arm, my camera angles will be the same." InSight is equipped with two color cameras and has already returned six photos from its touch.
The waist-height probe will remain in place for the two years of its mission.
NASA has not said anything about the state of the other instruments on board, including a French-made seismometer to study Marsquakes and a German self-propelled mole to measure the heat loss of the planet.
NASA said its solar panels have deployed, which is good news since the LG is running on solar energy.
In Paris, the French space agency CERN said that everything seemed to be going at the moment and that it was incumbent on NASA to communicate with the SEIS earthquake detection instrument.
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