The Patriot Files Forums  

Go Back   The Patriot Files Forums > Warfare > Space

Post New Thread  Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1  
Old 11-25-2018, 11:23 AM
Boats's Avatar
Boats Boats is online now
Senior Member
 

Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: Sauk Village, IL
Posts: 21,783
Post NASA spacecraft nears Mars on mission to study its deep interior

NASA spacecraft nears Mars on mission to study its deep interior
11-26-18
RE: https://archive.shine.cn/world/NASA-.../shdaily.shtml

NASA’s first robotic lander designed to study the deep interior of a distant world hurtled closer to Mars on course for a planned touchdown today after a six-month voyage through space.

Traveling 548 million kilometers from Earth, the Mars InSight spacecraft was due to reach its destination on the dusty, rock-strewn surface of the Red Planet at 2000GMT.

If all goes according to plan, InSight will streak into the pink Martian sky at 19,310km per hour. Its descent to the surface will be slowed by atmospheric friction, a giant parachute and retro rockets. When it lands 6-1/2 minutes later, it will be traveling a mere 8 kph.

The stationary probe, which left from California in May, will then pause for 16 minutes for the dust to settle, literally, around the landing site before its disc-shaped solar arrays unfurl to provide power.

The mission control team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory near Los Angeles hopes to get real-time electronic confirmation of the spacecraft’s safe arrival from miniature satellites that were launched along with it and will fly past Mars.

The JPL controllers also expect to receive a photo of the probe’s surroundings on the flat, smooth Martian plain close to the planet’s equator called the Elysium Planitia.

The site is about 600km from the 2012 landing spot of the car-sized Mars rover Curiosity, the last spacecraft sent to the Red Planet by NASA.

The smaller, 360kg InSight — its name is short for Interior Exploration Using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport — marks the 21st United States-launched Martian exploration, including the Mariner fly-by missions of the 1960s. Nearly two dozen other Mars missions have been sent from other nations.

InSight is the first dedicated to unlocking secrets from deep below the Martian surface. The lander will spend 24 months — about one Martian year — using seismic monitoring and underground drilling to gather clues on how Mars formed and, by extension, the origins of Earth and other rocky planets of the inner solar system more than 4 billion years ago.

“What this helps us understand is how we got to here,” said JPL’s Bruce Banerdt, InSight principal investigator, during a pre-landing briefing with reporters last week.

While Earth’s tectonics and other forces have erased most evidence of its early history, much of Mars — about 1/3rd the Earth’s size — is believed to have been largely static over the eons, creating a geologic time machine for scientists.

The InSight and next rover mission, along with others in the planning stage, are seen as precursors for eventual human exploration of Mars, NASA officials said.
__________________
Boats

O Almighty Lord God, who neither slumberest nor sleepest; Protect and assist, we beseech thee, all those who at home or abroad, by land, by sea, or in the air, are serving this country, that they, being armed with thy defence, may be preserved evermore in all perils; and being filled with wisdom and girded with strength, may do their duty to thy honour and glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

"IN GOD WE TRUST"
sendpm.gif Reply With Quote
Sponsored Links
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is On

All times are GMT -7. The time now is 05:54 AM.


Powered by vBulletin, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.