NASA InSight Probe Will Try To Land On Mars Tonight, After Surviving 'Seven Minutes Of Terror'
On 5th May earlier this year NASA launched the most advanced space exploration probe ever built by humanity towards the planet of Mars. After travelling 4827 lakh kilometre over the past six months the Mars Insight Lander is ready to land on the Red Planet. But the final seven minutes of its descent through the Martian atmosphere is considered the most dangerous phase of its journey.
On 5th May earlier this year, NASA launched the most advanced space exploration probe ever built by humanity towards the planet of Mars.
After travelling 4827 lakh kilometre over the past six months, the Mars Insight Lander is ready to land on the Red Planet. But the final seven minutes of its descent through the Martian atmosphere is considered the most dangerous phase of its journey.
NASA
ALSO READ: Six Months After Launch, NASA's New InSight Mars Rover Will Land On Red Planet On Nov 27
Short for Interior Exploration Using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport, the InSight Mars Lander's focused on studying the interior of the planet, complete with a state-of-the-art seismometer, thermometer, and radio echo sensors ever designed by NASA for remote space sensing.
NASA's Mars InSight Lander is going to answer a lot of questions revealed by previous Mars missions in greater detail from on the ground. But before even we go that far, NASA has to successfully land InSight probe on the Red Planet.
Seven minutes of terror
This will involve the Mars InSight Lander successfully executing the entire landing sequence flawlessly, which is about seven minutes in total.
Question of the day: If our @NASAInSight lander is traveling at 14,000 mph and has only 6 minutes to slow down before it reaches the Martian surface, what's required for a safe #MarsLanding?
¡ª NASA (@NASA) November 26, 2018
See how @NASA_Langley engineers tackled this question and more: https://t.co/3eNo3pitBM. pic.twitter.com/EKqwWWTScd
As NASA's Mars InSight Lander prepares to enter the Martian atmosphere, it's travelling at over 22,500 kmph -- which is just insane.
If the humungous speed of entry into the atmosphere wasn't enough, Mars InSight Lander should hit the atmosphere at a perfect angle of 12 degrees. If the angle of entry is below 12 degrees, the probe will bounce off into deep space, missing Mars altogether. And if the angle of entry is above 12 degrees, the probe will descent too steeply, experiencing more friction from the Martian atmosphere, leading to a spectacular fiery death. The whole mission hangs by a thread during this incredibly stressful phase of the InSight Lander's journey to Mars.
Roughly three and a half minutes into the atmospheric descent, NASA's Mars InSight Lander will deploy a supersonic parachute which will slow the probe down even more. After blasting off its heat shield, the InSight Lander will breathe Martian air for the very first time. It will descend its shock-absorbing legs, preparing for touchdown, falling for another two minutes with parachute still attached.
It will then lose its parachute and protective shell, firing its landing rockets in a carefully coordinated and timed sequence. As soon as it leaves the shell, its landing rockets will ignite.
Save the date: Tomorrow, @NASAInSight will land on #Mars. Learn more before the Monday, Nov. 26 touchdown on the Red Planet: https://t.co/pMnYzasMBN #MarsLanding pic.twitter.com/ivYbzeXTJF
¡ª NASA (@NASA) November 26, 2018
The rockets will slow down the NASA Mars InSight Lander even more, trying to keep it horizontal to the landing surface. In the final 15 seconds of its descent, the InSight Lander is expected to come down at a speed of 8 feet per second, and hopefully successfully land on the Martian surface.
At this point, we still don't know if all has gone as per plan, and if the Mars InSight Lander survived the descent or not. We won't know until the InSight Lander's solar panels have been successfully deployed until 7 am IST on Tuesday, Nov 27.
NASA
But for the sake of humanity's future and space exploration, we really hope the NASA Mars InSight Lander survives the seven minutes of terror and sends a message back to base that all's well. And then the exploration will begin.
