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More than six months and 300 million kilometers since its launch of Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, the NASA InSight lander is expected to to arrive at March Monday to study the red planet.
Mars' NASA study focused on the surface of the planet and the possibility of living early in its history. On the other hand, the InSight mission – the name is a compression of inland exploration using seismic surveys, geodesy and heat transport – will study the mysteries of the deep interior of the planet, in order to answer questions geophysics on its structure, composition and shaping.
When is the landing?
The touchdown should take place at 2:54 p.m. Eastern Time.
To be precise, it is the "time of reception of the Earth" – when the signal signaling the landing arrives on Earth (and the beginning of cheers in the control room).
The actual landing is scheduled for 14:47. The radio signal must then travel 91 million kilometers to Earth from Mars and arrive about 8 minutes later. (the time it takes for the light to go that far).
How can I track the landing?
Some time after 17 hours, the space agency will hold a press conference to discuss the evolution of the situation.
NASA has also held parties across the country, including gatherings at the Los Angeles Central Library, the Chicago Adler Planetarium and the American Museum of Natural History in New York. York – where people can watch the landing with other Mars enthusiasts.
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Why is it so hard to land on Mars?
The InSight probe will move at 12,300 miles per hour as it enters the upper atmosphere of Mars, about 80 miles above the surface. (It's more than 200 miles per second.) Six and a half minutes later, the distance traveled is 0 km / hour, on the ground. This is certain. (NASA's space navigators are really good, they will not miss Mars.)
The tricky part is to land in one piece and in working order. To date, NASA is the only space agency to have achieved this feat.
The very thin air of Mars makes the landing particularly difficult. There is enough air so that the rubbing of the molecules heats parts of the outside of InSight at 2,700 degrees Fahrenheit – hot enough to melt the steel – but not enough d & # 39; For the trail to slow down the spacecraft a lot.
Thus, the InSight LG will use a series of mechanisms – a heat shield, parachutes and rocket motors – to slow down. It must arrive on Martian soil at a speed of 5 miles at the hour. Sixteen minutes later – to allow time for the dust raised by the landing to land – the probe must deploy its solar panels.
NASA engineers know that the system can work. InSight's design is almost identical to that of the Phoenix Mars landing gear that landed successfully on Mars in 2008.
Where did we land on InSight?
The landing site bears the idyllic name of Elysium Planitia, near the equator in the northern hemisphere. Scientists at the mission described the area as a parking lot or "Kansas without corn".
It's intentional. Because the mission is not interested in rocky terrain or beautiful sunsets, the planners chose the flatter and safest place where the spacecraft could land.
What do scientists hope to learn?
How often does the ground tremble with marsquakes? What is the size of the molten core within Mars? What is the thickness of the crust? How much heat is flowing of the disintegration of radioactive elements at the heart of the planet? These are some of the questions that mission scientists hope to answer
InSight contains two main instruments: a dome-shaped set containing seismometers and a thermal probe that must widen to a depth of about 16 feet. NASA spent $ 814 million for InSight. In addition, France and Germany have invested $ 180 million to build these key instruments.
Seismometers, designed to measure surface movements less than the width of a hydrogen atom, will essentially produce sonograms of the interior of the planet. Scientists are looking to record at least 10 to 12 Marchquakes over two years. Temblors on Mars are not caused by plate tectonics, as on Earth. Instead, they are generated when the Earth's crust cracks due to cooling and narrowing of its interior. Seismometers could also detect other seismic vibrations from meteors striking Mars.
With the data, scientists expect to be able to reconstruct a three-dimensional image of the interior of the planet.
When does the main scientific part of the mission begin?
Not for a moment.
The first five to six weeks will be devoted primarily to checking the health of the spacecraft, including its robotic arm. After that, the arm will lift the dome of the seismometer from the main deck of the lander and place it on the ground. The burrow thermal probe will be deployed later and will take about 40 days to reach its final depth of 16 feet.
The main mission of InSight on the surface is to last almost two years.
What are these two briefcases flying over March Monday?
These are not briefcases. They are tiny spaceships!
NASA uses the InSight mission to test new technologies. Two identical spacecraft, christened Mars Cube One, or MarCO, were launched with InSight in May. MarCO A and B then separated from InSight's cruise stage and remained behind.
Hundreds of miniature satellites called CubeSats have orbited the Earth in recent years, but this is the first time that CubeSats has been sent on an interplanetary voyage.
The MarCO spacecraft will transmit InSight telemetry to the Earth. If it works, an InSight photo could arrive a few minutes after his arrival. But NASA does not rely on MarCO. The data will also be relayed by two other spacecraft in orbit, Mars Odyssey and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
What other spaceships are on and around Mars?
In orbit, NASA also owns Mars, Mars Odyssey and Maven reconnaissance orbiter. The European Space Agency has Mars Express and the ExoMars Tracer Gas Orbiter. The Indian Space Research Organization's mission is Mars Orbiter, also known as Mangalyaan.
On the surface, NASA is currently offering the Curiosity and Opportunity rovers, although Solar-powered Opportunity has been silent since the summer, when a global dust storm prevented it from generating enough energy to run. NASA hopes that Opportunity will live again now that the sky has cleared.
What missions to Mars are planned for the future?
The year 2020 could be busy.
NASA plans to launch another mobile, similar to Curiosity, but with a different set of instruments that will search for the basics of life. A collaboration between the European Space Agency and Russia will launch ExoMars, which will also include tools to determine if life could have existed on Mars.
China, Japan, the United Arab Emirates and India also plan to launch a satellite to Mars in 2020.
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