How to Land on Mars

After six months & # 39; journey from Earth, the spacecraft Insight located on a precise trajectory to land on the red planet.

About three hours before landing, the mission navigators have made a final chance to adjust the time or alignment & # 39; Insight to avoid any bad weather & # 39; Martian dust hazardous.

Insight Before entering the Martian atmosphere, the spacecraft will be shared by the cruise stage solar panels and switch to battery power.

The lighting and communications take 8 minutes and 7 seconds to reach Mars from Earth, so we will not know if the landing & # 39; Insight was success or failure until it passed.

Insight will go into thin marzjana atmosphere at & # 39; about 12,300 miles per hour.

The spacecraft has hit in & # 39; & # 39 angle; 12 degrees to survive. Too steep and Insight will burn; too low and it will skip across the atmosphere and back into space.

Insight will decrease rapidly as tears through the Martian atmosphere, then place about seven supersonic parachute & # 39; & # 39 miles; above the surface.

An outbreak & # 39; pyrotechnic release the heat shield of & # 39; Insight, newly inħarat heat income. The reception is thicker than previous missions, in case Insight is forced down by heavy dust.

Ten seconds later, more pyrotechnics would extend three feet to absorb shocks of the spacecraft. Thereafter, Insight will turn on its radar to feel the ground.

Less than a minute before landing, Insight will come and get some distance from its parachute and shell & # 39; & # 39 after b; nothing for a moment.

The consignor must emit 12 small rocket to move lower and more & # 39; away from the falling parachute & # 39 ;.

Having set its horizontal movement, Insight will begin smooth landing & # 39; about eight feet per second.

NASA expects to receive confirmation & # 39; landing Monday in & # 39; around 2:53 p.m. Eastern Time.

If hit by Insight & # 39; successful, will be the first landing & # 39; Mars landing of the complex & # 39; Curiosity Rover in 2012.

Insight is aiming for a broad plain called equatorial Elysium Planitia.

The plain can & # 39; make for boring pictures, but is considered a place of & # 39; ideal for landing mission to study the planet's interior.

After waiting & # 39; ovation for his feet to spread dust from landing, Insight will prepare its two solar panels.

The arter then then cut & # 39; a few days to check its systems and take images of the site & # 39; landing.

In the days and weeks after landing, Insight will measure its area, measured and tirripraċċa b & # 39; precisely the area around the operator and then use its robotic arm to place at three carefully instruments on the Martian surface.

Sismometru accurate precisely under protective dome will hear & # 39; marsquakes and purification heat probe covers internal temperature of the planet.

For more insight on what it hopes to learn on Mars, see a preview below or mission to explore Mars in Insight and & # 39; augmented reality.

The Rover Curiosity touched in & # 39; & # 39 in August 2012; Gale Crater, about 340 miles south of the site & # 39; the planned landing & # 39; Insight.

The curiosity is visible as darker tip inside the small patch of landing & # 39; above, where the bright surface dust created during landing.

The design & # 39; Insight into many Phoenix mission & # 39; success, which met near the Martian north pole in 2008.

orbitanti Phoenix spacecraft photographed and dropped his parachute before the krater of & # 39; Heimdal, above.

In 2016, the plant & # 39; & # 39 Schiaparelli suffered in; Mars after conflicting estimates & # 39; its altitude to drop caused by heat shield too early.

And in 2003, the actor refused Beagle 2 b & # 39; successful but could not communicate with Earth after failing to use all its solar panels.

Beagle 2 is the small white tip center in appearance & # 39; above.

Mars has an elliptical orbit to bring it close to Terra every two years. Launch & # 39; Insight was temporary for this window to reduce travel time.

Mars was closer to Earth in & # 39; late July and will re & # 39; back in 2020, when the Rover of & # 39; Mars (and helicopter) is scheduled to launch.

The journey of & # 39; Insight to Mars was relatively fast compared to & # 39; Other missions were launched in 2018. The BepiColombo spacecraft will take seven & # 39; years to reach Mercury and the Solar Probe will spend seven Parker & # 39; years to come & # 39; inside to touch the sun.

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Sources: NASA; Laboratory & # 39; Propulsion & # 39; Jet; Caltech. Estimates of the time updated by the Planetary Society, although the exact times depend on the landing conditions. Images from NASA / JPL-Caltech except where noted.