For NASA's InSight Mars Lander, all systems are ready for Monday's touchdown

All systems will land on Mars on November 26, confirmed NASA staff affiliated with the InSight mission at two press conferences held today (November 21).

At the time of this press conference, the spacecraft had traveled about 475 million kilometers of the 484 million km that will constitute the total journey. But one of the most serious obstacles remains, the process of entry, descent and landing, which will begin around 3 pm. EST (2000 GMT) on Monday, November 26th.

"My heart beats like a drum in the chest," said Tom Hoffman, NASA project manager, at the press conference. "While everyone will have turkey tomorrow, there will be a group of people here at JPL [NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory] Work all day, hoping to get some rest for a turkey dinner, but especially to make sure we land successfully on Mars. " [NASA’s InSight Mars Lander: Full Coverage]

Part of this work will be to determine if the spacecraft needs a little extra boost to set it up for landing. Since its launch, InSight has made four minor changes to its trajectory to ensure it reaches the target. He was able to pass an additional maneuver because the others went off without a hitch, and the team thinks that the probe may be able to ignore the final adjustment, scheduled for November 25.

Properly aligning the spacecraft will increase the chances that everything will go well during entry, descent and landing. Although this process takes less than 7 minutes, many problems could occur if the speed of the spacecraft suddenly slows down, from its initial speed of 19,000 km / h to 12 km / h at only 8 km / h when 'lander lands.

Fortunately, the landing seems clear, according to scientists who provide daily updates for the touchdown. The dust storms that hit Mars this year are mostly muted and the landing site of InSight, Elysium Planitia, was particularly quiet. "It has been about a month since things are going well," said Rob Grover, who oversees the entry, descent and landing phase, at the press conference. "We are expecting a very simple day on the landing on Mars, and we are very happy."

Once InSight touches the ground, it will bend its thumbs for about 16 minutes to allow the dust it raises to settle again. Then, the undercarriage will deploy its circular solar panels – a crucial step in the process, as the battery on board will only last about a Martian day.

If this first deployment does not work, InSight has three other options to deploy them, said Stu Spath, Lockheed Martin's project manager, who built much of the probe at the press conference. "The spaceship is quite capable of taking care of itself during this time," Spath said.

The crew confirmed that it would be a little patient to know how the landing went. The final confirmation that the solar panels deployed will come from the Orbiter 2001 Mars Odyssey. But this spacecraft will be on the wrong side of the planet to send its message to Earth. The team will have to wait almost 6 hours for the orbital mechanics to align correctly.

A pair of tiny satellites using InSight, called Mars Cube One or MarCO, could make it easier to wait. The two small companions carry a test technology that, hopefully, will relay the signals from the lander directly to the Earth, bypassing the major Mars orbits.

The rest of us will hear about the landing later on November 26, when NASA will hold a press conference after the fact, sometime after 5 pm. EST (22:00 GMT). Until then, as Philippe Laudet, who runs the seismometer project on InSight, said at the conclusion of his part of the press conference, it's "Goodbye, thanks and see you next week on Mars!"

Email Meghan Bartels at [email protected] or follow her. @meghanbartels. follow us @Spacedotcom, and Facebook. Original article on Space.com.