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This illustration, made available by NASA in March 2018, shows the twin spacecraft of the Mars Cube One Project (MarCO) flying over Mars with the Earth and the sun in the distance. The MarCOs will be the first CubeSats, a kind of modular mini-satellite, projected in deep space. They are designed to fly behind the NASA InSight lander during his cruise to Mars. (NASA / JPL-Caltech via AP)
A pair of tiny experimental satellites tracing NASA's InSight satellite to Mars is facing its biggest test so far.
Their mission: to disseminate immediate information, good or bad, about the diving of InSight in the Martian atmosphere on Monday.
Named WALL-E and EVE after the main characters of the 2008 animated film, the twin CubeSats will pass a few thousand kilometers from Mars when the LG will attempt his touchdown.
If these pipsqueaks manage to relay the InSight radio signals to ground controllers at nearly 160 million kilometers (160 million kilometers), we'll know in minutes if the spacecraft has landed safely.
A look at the itty-bitty acolytes of InSight:
Hitchchiders
From the size of a briefcase, WALL-E and EVE have mounted the same rocket that launched InSight to Mars in May. CubeSats still share rockets; they are too small and inexpensive to guarantee their own launch. The Mars Cube One project, or MarCO, built and managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, cost $ 18.5 million.
FLIGHT TRAINING
NASA kept the CubeSats about 10,000 kilometers from InSight on the 300-mile journey to Mars to prevent collisions or close calls. Mini-satellites were as far apart from each other for the same reason. The room for maneuver in this "very loose formation," as Chief Engineer Andy Klesh describes it, has varied over the course of the mission and narrows as the spacecraft approaches Mars.
BETTER BEHAVIOR
For the record, EVE performed better than WALL-E during the 6 ½ month trip to Mars. Each CubeSat uses the same type of cold gas propulsion as fire extinguishers to spray foam. In the movie, WALL-E uses a fire extinguisher to propel itself into space. In fact, WALL-E loses fuel almost since take-off. The flight controllers have solved the problem. Meanwhile, "EVE seems to follow his name and has been flying very well throughout the mission," Klesh said.
On this undated photo made available by NASA in March 2018, engineer Joel Steinkraus uses sunlight to test the solar panels of one of Mars Project's Mars Cube One (MarCO) satellites at Jet NASA Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. WALL-E and EVE, A pair of tiny experimental satellites borrowed the same rocket that launched InSight to Mars in May. This MarCO system built and managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory cost $ 18.5 million. (NASA / JPL-Caltech via AP)
DRY RUN
In June, WALL-E and EVE performed a series of radio relay tests using signals from a large satellite dish located near Palo Alto, California. Klesh said the engineers had confidence in the CubeSats' ability to do the same with InSight signals on the day of landing. Last month, the pair returned photos of Mars to 13 million kilometers. Mars was just a clarification, but the team said CubeSat was a first.
ALL OUIE
It takes eight minutes and seven seconds for a radio signal to pass from Mars to Earth, in a sense. It should take less than a minute to get an InSight message, if the mini-satellites cooperate. This means that NASA could know the fate of InSight almost in real time. If WALL-E and EVE are the moms, the confirmation will come directly from the LG or, a few hours later, from the space probe circling Mars.
GOAL FUTURE
As NASA explores new worlds, it would be useful to have outposts for retransmitting downhill and landing updates. Spacecraft already in orbit around Mars serve this purpose every time NASA sends a lander. But where there are no satellites – think of asteroids or dwarf planets on the periphery of our solar system – CubeSats could intervene, with little overhead and low cost.
BEYOND MARCH
Whether or not they provide information about InSight, WALL-E and EVE will fly over Mars and stay in an elliptical orbit around the sun. Engineers expect that they will continue to work a few weeks after March, depending on how long the fuel is stored and electronics.
Explore further:
NASA's first image on Mars from a CubeSat
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