While everyone was watching the last landing of the vehicle on Mars performed by NASA, in parallel with this was another important event. Two tiny cube satellites “cubsat” (CubeSat) — traveled with InSight, sending data to the Ground coming from the probe. No one has ever sent these tiny satellites are so far above. Can this mission mark the beginning of the era of cheap Solar system research?
The spacecraft, known as MarCO-A and MarCO-B, went into space on the same rocket that launched the InSight in may this year. However, they come with other equipment, in contrast to the module of NASA. And they just flew with InSight on the same trajectory to Mars. Flying with the “Insight” of 484 million miles, they stayed in space, not landing on Mars.
They were launched have conquered Mars
They were launched is an inexpensive satellites designed for fundamental space research. In themselves they represent the whole cubes. Some satellites consist of one such cube, some of several. In the case of the Mars Cube One, NASA has collected them from the original six units. The total cost of the project amounted to $ 18 million is much less than usually require probes for deep space.
NASA originally experienced these tiny ships, making the Land a few weeks after launch, and then we have nothing haven’t heard about them until InSight has not carried out your fit. Then they were launched reached out and used their experimental antenna with high gain for transmission of data from InSight Earth. Thus proved that small satellites are ideal for exploration of the Solar system.
Unfortunately, at some point, the system MarCO-A worked correctly. MarCO-B managed to send some pictures of Mars that have helped NASA to gather some data about the atmosphere. The photo above cubsat made at a height of approximately 7600 kilometers away from Mars.
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