Today, for the first time in six years, Mars will see a guest from our planet. The NASA InSight will try to gently sit on the surface of the red planet to operate their scientific instruments and to do experiments that would be conducted the next few years. And with some luck longer. For details on the operation of the probe can be explored here, and the stream of the landing will go live. Here we will collect everything that happens with the probe, including updates in real-time.
InSight (Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport) will not search for life on Mars. However, exploring the insides of the planet — what is it made of, how a layered material and how much heat passes through it — it will help scientists to understand how the raw materials of the planet allow us to sustain life.
Measuring the internal temperature of Mars with a probe called Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3), InSight can help to explain how the heat creates the planet’s surface, making it more or less habitable over time.
Radioexpedition RISE (Rotation and Structure of the Experiment) InSight will help scientists to measure variations of Mars. In combination with information about the layers and the warmth of the planet, these insights will allow us to understand how Mars has lost its magnetic field.
The seismometer (SEIS) will help to understand how earthquakes can be caused not only by tectonic action — pass through Mars.
The wobble of Mars, tectonic activity, and heat flow — these three points will help us to know why our planetary neighbor did not like our planet, although had all the chances.
Broadcast live NASA:
Interactive video of the mission control center at the jet propulsion Laboratory (JPL)
- The machine dropped the main stage and turned the heat screen in the direction of the planet’s atmosphere;
- The temperature of the thermal screen is 1500 degrees Celsius;
- The opening of the parachute;
- Initiated reset of the thermal screen;
- The radar module is directed precisely to the surface;
- Confirmation of a soft landing. The Insight module made a soft landing on Mars;
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