The latest Mars probe, Insight, lands on Mars tonight. The landing is tricky, as the spacecraft negotiates the Martian atmosphere to slow down from 20,000 kmph in space to 8 kmph to coast to the Martian plain Elysium Planitia in 6.5 tense minutes deploying a supersonic parachute. The space craft carries a heavy load, a burrowing heat probe, and three supersensitive seismographs, whose function is to measure temperatures beneath the crust and to record Marsquakes. Unlike the Curiosity rover, the Insight probe will stay put in one place. However, all plans are on hold till the spacecraft lands safely. NASA starts a live telecast of the landing at 12.00 midnight today here
Happy watching.
This blog post is by Neelima Gupte and Sumathi Rao.
It was a flawless landing. Insight landed, phoned home and sent a picture. Yay!
Here is the Nasa team viewing the pic.
And here is the pic itself, Mars looking like a spotty teenager.
The splotches are dust, they say. We will wait for the good pictures. In all, this is Nasa's 18th landing mission to Mars, and the 8th successful one. The rest crashed! That should say how tricky it is.
More updates as and when. Bye for now.
Happy watching.
This blog post is by Neelima Gupte and Sumathi Rao.
It was a flawless landing. Insight landed, phoned home and sent a picture. Yay!
Here is the Nasa team viewing the pic.
And here is the pic itself, Mars looking like a spotty teenager.
The splotches are dust, they say. We will wait for the good pictures. In all, this is Nasa's 18th landing mission to Mars, and the 8th successful one. The rest crashed! That should say how tricky it is.
More updates as and when. Bye for now.
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