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NASA announced Monday that Mars InSight, the first spacecraft to listen to earthquakes and study the workings of another rocky planet, reportedly hit Monday at $ 993 million.
Nobody is aboard the spacecraft, which was launched nearly seven months ago and has traveled some 482 million kilometers.
But part of its mission is to inform efforts to send human explorers to the Red Planet one day, something NASA hopes to do by 2030.
The lander is the first to reach Mars since 2012, when NASA's Curiosity robot landed to search the surface and analyze the rocks for signs that life forms may have already inhabited the planet. neighbor of the Earth, become a cold and arid planet.
InSight must survive a tense entrance into the Mars atmosphere by traveling at a speed of 19,300 km / h and slowing rapidly to just 5 mph (8 km / h).
This phase of entry, descent and landing begins at 11:47 in California (1947 GMT) and is only a joke to NASA as "six and a half minutes of terror."
Of 43 missions launched to Mars, only 18 have intact – a success rate of about 40%. All those who made it came from the United States.
"Going to Mars is really very difficult," said Thomas Zurbuchen, deputy administrator of NASA's science mission.
"What's exciting is that we are banking on the success of the best team that has ever landed on this planet, namely the NASA team with its subcontractors and collaborators."
– French seismometer –
The name InSight is derived from "Inland Exploration with the help of seismic surveys, geodesy and heat transport".
The probe is about one meter tall and once deployed, the solar panels will extend to a height of 20 feet.
Full of gas, InSight weighs more than 360 kilograms (800 pounds), just about the same as a Harley Davidson motorcycle.
Its central instrument is a seismometer with earthquake detection manufactured by CNES.
"This is the only NASA mission to date designed around an instrument manufactured abroad," Jean-Yves Le Gall, president of CNES, told AFP.
"It is therefore a mission that is fundamentally for the United States, for France and for improving our understanding of Mars."
The six on-board earthquake sensors are so sensitive that they should reveal the smallest tremors on Mars, such as the low traction of its lunar Phobos, the meteor impacts and perhaps signs of rain. volcanic activity.
Seismology has taught humanity a lot about the formation of the Earth some 4.5 billion years ago, but much of the Earth-based evidence has been lost to crust recycling, driven by plate tectonics. This process does not exist on Mars.
The probe also has an automatic hammer probe that can burrow up to 3 to 5 meters, providing the first accurate measurement of underground temperatures on Mars and the amount of heat that escapes from its interior.
– Landing conditions –
Built by Lockheed Martin, InSight is inspired by the Phoenix spacecraft that landed near the North Martian Pole in 2008.
Like Phoenix, the arrival of InSight will be facilitated by a parachute. Its thermal shield will help slow down the spacecraft and protect against the hot rubs of penetrating the Mars atmosphere
Its landing site is a flat area called Elysium Planitia, which NASA has called "the largest parking on Mars".
The undercarriage needs to straighten up. And then, another crucial step is the deployment of solar panels, because the one-year mission of the LG will be entirely solar powered.
NASA should know in a few minutes whether the landing has gone well or not, but it will have to wait more than five hours to confirm the deployment of the solar generator, due to the orbit model of the aircraft. Mars and Mars Odyssey reconnaissance orbiter that can communicate the status of InSight to Earth.
The crew at the mission checkpoint at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, is eagerly awaiting confirmation of the first attempt to confirm the ping order at the scheduled time of Monday at 04:00.
"I have a lot of sweat and tears that have been invested in this project, and I'm looking forward to having a nice and safe touch on Monday," said Stu Spath, Lockheed InSight Program Manager. Martin.
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