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Artist's impression of
NASA InSight's entry, descent and landing at Mars, scheduled for Nov. 26, 2018. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech
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CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – If all goes well Mars will welcome get a new inhabitant in less than 24 hours when NASA’s newest probe to Mars, the InSight lander is slated to make a soft touchdown on the Red Planet after she hopefully survives the nail-biting ‘7 Minutes of Terror’ plummet from the top of the atmosphere to the surface at an alien locale called ‘Elysium Planitia’ to study the heart of Mars and its deep interior.
InSight only has one chance to survive intact with soft landing due to take place at Elysium Planitia – a sandy, flat plain on the Red Planet around 2:54 p.m. EDT, 11:54 a.m. PST following a 7 month, 301 million mile (484 million km) interplanetary journey from Earth.
The harrowing process is known as EDL or Entry, Descent and Landing or more popularly as the ‘7 minutes of Terror’ begins after NASA's InSight spacecraft separates from the cruise stage that brought the $830 Million mission to Mars at 2:40 p.m. EST, 11:40 a.m. PST.
The probe then rotates to orient the heat shield towards the Red Planet to protect herself from beyond Red Hot temperatures.
EDL’s '7 minutes of Terror’ begins as she hits the top of the atmosphere at 12,300 miles per hour (5.5 kilometers per second, 19,800 kph) and approximately 80 miles (about 128 kilometers) altitude above the Red Planet at around 2:47 p.m. EST, 11:47 a.m. PST and blazes through at temperatures reaching up to 2700 degrees F (1500 C) – enough to melt steel – while protected from melting and utter destruction by the heat shield.
EDL will slow InSight to about 5 MPH (8 kph) at
touchdown – concluding the ‘7 Minutes of Terror.’
Overall the
time it takes for EDL to set a lander gently
on the surface of the Red Planet is less time than it takes to hard-boil an
egg.
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InSight Mars lander on final approach
to the Red Planet moments before cruise stage separation
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The entire EDL sequence is “preprogrammed to perform a specific sequence of activities to make this possible” - with no chance of human intervention since it takes about 8 minutes for radio signals traveling at the speed of light to reach mission control on Earth.
So in fact the entire EDL process will have already succeeded with a safe Red Planet touchdown or failed before the first signal is even received back here on Earth.
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InSight spacecraft approaches Mars in this artist's concept.
Landing set for Nov. 26, 2018. Interior Exploration using
Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport, or InSight, is a Mars
lander that probes the planet's deep interior to shed light on the evolution of
Mars and the rocky planets of the solar system. Credits:
NASA/JPL-Caltech
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Engineer’s conducted a final Trajectory
Correction Maneuver known as TCM-6 late Sunday afternoon, Nov 25 to aim InSight
more precisely to the center of the landing ellipse – hoping to shift it about
10 miles west from what TCM-5 accomplished.
The landing location is about 340 miles (550 kilometers) away from Gale Crater - where NASA's Curiosity rover landed in 2012.
The landing location is about 340 miles (550 kilometers) away from Gale Crater - where NASA's Curiosity rover landed in 2012.
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The Mars Odyssey orbiter
took this image of the target landing site for NASA's InSight lander at flat-lying
Elysium Planitia, centered at about 4.5 degrees north latitude and 136 degrees
east longitude. The landing ellipse covers an
area within which the spacecraft has about 99 percent chance of landing when
targeted for the center of the ellipse. It is about 81 miles (130 kilometers)
long, generally west to east, and about 17 miles (27 kilometers) wide. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU
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The spacecraft is on
course to study Mars deep interior and Marsquakes for the first time in human
history to elucidate how it evolved over 4.5 Billions years. That history has
been erased by natural progression and evolution on and inside Earth including plate tectonics and
erosion of our planet's crust.
“Some milestones will be known quickly only if the experimental Mars Cube One (MarCO) spacecraft are providing a reliable communications relay from InSight back to Earth,” says NASA.
“If all goes well, MarCO may take a few seconds to receive and format the data before sending it back to Earth at the speed of light. The one-way time for a signal to reach Earth from Mars is eight minutes and seven seconds on Nov. 26.”
“The primary communications path for InSight engineering data during the landing process is through NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Mars Odyssey. Those data are expected to become available several hours after landing.”
InSight is NASA’s first mission to Mars surface in 6 years since the Curiosity rover safely touched down by the skycrane maneuver in 2012 - to begin a minimum 2 year long mission to study the heart of Mars and elucidate the deep interior of the Red Planet like never before.
Times listed below are in Earth Receive Time, or the time JPL Mission Control may receive the signals relating to these activities.
Here's an illustrated ‘7 Minutes of Terror’ Timeline:
“Some milestones will be known quickly only if the experimental Mars Cube One (MarCO) spacecraft are providing a reliable communications relay from InSight back to Earth,” says NASA.
“If all goes well, MarCO may take a few seconds to receive and format the data before sending it back to Earth at the speed of light. The one-way time for a signal to reach Earth from Mars is eight minutes and seven seconds on Nov. 26.”
“The primary communications path for InSight engineering data during the landing process is through NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Mars Odyssey. Those data are expected to become available several hours after landing.”
InSight is NASA’s first mission to Mars surface in 6 years since the Curiosity rover safely touched down by the skycrane maneuver in 2012 - to begin a minimum 2 year long mission to study the heart of Mars and elucidate the deep interior of the Red Planet like never before.
Times listed below are in Earth Receive Time, or the time JPL Mission Control may receive the signals relating to these activities.
Here's an illustrated ‘7 Minutes of Terror’ Timeline:
·
11:40 a.m. PST (2:40
p.m. EST) — Separation from the cruise stage that carried the mission to Mars
· 11:41 a.m. PST (2:41
p.m. EST) — Turn to orient the spacecraft properly for atmospheric entry
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Illustration of InSight lander separating from its cruise stage
as it prepares to enter Mars’ atmosphere. InSight lander is on the right,
tucked inside a protective heat shield and back shell. The cruise stage with
solar panels is on the left.
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·
11:47 a.m. PST (2:47
p.m. EST) — Atmospheric entry at about 12,300 mph (19,800 kph), beginning the
entry, descent and landing phase
11:49 a.m. PST (2:49 p.m.
EST) — Peak heating of the protective heat shield reaches about 2,700°F (about
1,500°C)
· 15 seconds later — Peak deceleration, with the intense heating causing possible temporary dropouts in radio signals
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11:51 a.m. PST (2:51 p.m. EST) — Parachute Deployment of the 39-foot-diameter (11.8-meter) supersonic parachute at a speed of approximately 861 mph (385 meters per second) and at an altitude of approximately 36,400 feet (11,100 meters) above the surface. The deployment will occur with about 12,500 pounds of force (55,600 newtons).
11:51 a.m. PST (2:51 p.m. EST) — Parachute Deployment of the 39-foot-diameter (11.8-meter) supersonic parachute at a speed of approximately 861 mph (385 meters per second) and at an altitude of approximately 36,400 feet (11,100 meters) above the surface. The deployment will occur with about 12,500 pounds of force (55,600 newtons).
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15 seconds later —
Separation from the heat shield
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10 seconds later — Deployment
of the lander's three shock-absorbing legs
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Illustration shows simulated
view of NASA's InSight lander descending on its parachute toward the surface of
Mars with 3 landing legs deployed. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech
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·
11:52 a.m. PST (2:52
p.m. EST) — Activation of the radar that will sense the distance to the ground
·
11:53 a.m. PST (2:53
p.m. EST) — First acquisition of the radar signal
·
20 seconds later —
Separation from the back shell and parachute
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| InSight lander firing retrorockets to slow down as it descends toward the surface of Mars. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech |
0.5 second later — The retrorockets, or descent engines, begin firing. The 12 descent engines slow the spacecraft for touchdown guided by the onboard guidance software and radar system
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12 Descent rockets fire to slow NASA Insight to soft touchdown on the
Red Planet during harrowing Entry, Descent and Landing sequence on Nov. 26,
2018. Credit: NASA JPL
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·
22 seconds later —
InSight begins slowing to a constant velocity (from 17 mph to a constant 5 mph,
or from 27 kph to 8 kph) for its soft landing
1:54 a.m. PST (2:54
p.m. EST) — Expected touchdown on the surface of Mars at about 5 MPH. The 12 descent engines
must cut off immediately or the lander will flip over.  |
12 Descent rockets fire to slow NASA Insight to soft touchdown on the
Red Planet during harrowing Entry, Descent and Landing sequence on Nov. 26,
2018. Credit: NASA JPL
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Illustration shows a
simulated view of NASA's InSight lander kicking up dust as it lands on the
Martian surface on Nov. 26, 2018. NASA/JPL-Caltech
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·
12:01 p.m. PST (3:01 p.m.
EST) — "Beep" from InSight's X-band radio directly back to Earth,
indicating InSight is alive and functioning on the surface of Mars
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Illustration depicts the MarCO CubeSats relaying data (blue)
from NASA's InSight lander (green) as InSight enters the Martian atmosphere
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·
No earlier than 12:04
p.m. PST (3:04 p.m. EST), but possibly the next day — First image from InSight
on the surface of Mars
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Artist’s concept depicts
the smooth, flat ground that dominates InSight's landing ellipse in the Elysium
Planitia region of Mars. Credits:
NASA/JPL-Caltech
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·
No earlier than 5:35
p.m. PST (8:35 p.m. EST) — Confirmation from InSight via NASA's Mars Odyssey
orbiter that InSight's solar arrays have deployed
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Artist's
concept depicts NASA's InSight lander after it has deployed its instruments on
the Martian surface in the Elysium Planitia region of Mars with smooth, flat
ground that dominates InSight's landing ellipse. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech
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Insight is also slightly heavier weighing about 1,340 pounds (608 kilograms) vs. 1,263 pounds (573 kilograms). hen it slams into the atmosphere.
InSight also will be landing at a slightly higher elevation of “about 4,900 feet (1.5 kilometers) higher than Phoenix did, so it has less atmosphere to use for deceleration.”
So the InSight team has been busy for 7 years to get the spacecraft ready for Monday’s landing on Nov. 26.
The landed probe has a
mass of 794 pounds (360 kilograms). It sports a ‘wingspan of 19
feet 8 inches (6 meters) with solar panels deployed and a width of 5 feet 1
inch (1.56 meters) (lander deck diameter).
InSight in an international science mission. Loaded aboard are
the two primary science instruments provided by European partners: The SEIS
seismometer and HP3 heat flow
measuring instrument.
The SEIS seismometer instrument to detect marsquakes was provided by the Centre National d'Études Spatiales (CNES) - the French national space agency equivalent to NASA. The other instrument measuring heat flow from the Martian interior is provided by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and is named Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3).
The HP3 hammering mole will pound about 5 meters (16 feet) deep into Mars pulling the science heat flow cable tether along to make heat flow and temperature measurements. It will pause multiple times along the way down to make detailed measurements at different depths of heat flow from the planets core.
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NASA's InSight Mars Lander
in fully landed configuration in the clean room at Lockheed Martin Space in
Littleton, Colorado. Once the solar arrays are fully deployed on Mars, they can
provide 600-700 watts on a clear day, or just enough to power a household
blender. Credits: Lockheed Martin
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The SEIS seismometer instrument to detect marsquakes was provided by the Centre National d'Études Spatiales (CNES) - the French national space agency equivalent to NASA. The other instrument measuring heat flow from the Martian interior is provided by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and is named Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3).
The HP3 hammering mole will pound about 5 meters (16 feet) deep into Mars pulling the science heat flow cable tether along to make heat flow and temperature measurements. It will pause multiple times along the way down to make detailed measurements at different depths of heat flow from the planets core.
After landing it will take about 2 to 3 months to lift the two science instruments off the robots deck and deploy them onto Mars surface using the robotic arm.
InSight is equipped with two cameras. One just below the rover deck is a fisheye. The other is located at the terminus of the robotic arm – similar to Phoenix. They will aid the team in selecting the spot for the instruments deployments.
There is also a weather station aboard to continuously measure Mars local temperatures, wind speeds and direction and pressures every day 24/7 for the first time on Mars.
Also aboard are 2 cubesats named MarCO A and B (nicknamed WALL-E and Eva) which are the first ever interplanetary cubesats launching beyond Earth orbit and towards the Red Planet. They are technology demonstration experiments.
The two briefcase sized spacecraft fly separately and have survived the entire trip and hopefully will relay EDL data from InSight as it plummets down to the Red Planet.
They have taken a few images, most recently on Nov 24.
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On Nov. 24, 2018 a
wide-angle camera on MarCO-B took this picture of Mars, which appears as small,
grey dot in the lower left quadrant of the image. On the right side of the
image is the spacecraft's high-gain antenna. On the left side is the high-gain
antenna feed, as well as part of the spacecraft's thermal blanket. Image Credit:
NASA/JPL-Caltech.
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The landing coverage will also be stream live on: YouTube.com/NASAJPL/live and Ustream.tv/NASAJPL
InSight is funded by NASA’s Discovery Program of low cost, focused science missions along with the science instrument funding contributions from France and Germany.
Watch for Ken’s continuing onsite coverage of NASA, SpaceX, ULA, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and more space and mission reports direct from the Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida and Wallops Flight Facility, Virginia.
Stay tuned here for Ken's continuing Earth and Planetary science and human spaceflight news: www.kenkremer.com –www.spaceupclose.com – twitter @ken_kremer – email: ken at kenkremer.com
Dr. Kremer is a research scientist, journalist and photographer based in the KSC area.……….
Ken’s photos are for sale and he is available for lectures and outreach events
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