MarCO was honored 'Small satellite mission of the year'

According to the August 11 announcement of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) of the US Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA), Cube Mars One (also known as "MarCO" for short) has honored by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Space with the award "Small satellite mission of the year".

Designed and assembled at JPL headquarters in Pasadena City, California (USA), MarCO includes two CubeSats satellites nicknamed: WALL-E and EVE . WALL-E and EVE are made up of cubic devices and are the first satellite in the world to be as compact as a briefcase to travel to other planets.

Cube Mars One was honored by the American Aeronautics and Space Institute with the "Small Satellite Mission of the Year" award.(Photo: planetary.org).

The pair of satellites were mounted behind NASA's InSight amphibious ship in the mission to land the Martian surface on November 26, 2018. By transmitting signals from the landing ship back to Earth, WALL-E and EVE have enabled InSight's team of observers to travel to see this ship land on " Red Planet" in time. The space is quite close to reality (the time difference is very low).

Along the way, WALL-E also sent beautiful images of Mars to Earth, while EVE performed some simple radio science work.

The satellite duo that have achieved these achievements in an experimental technology has a fraction of the cost of most other space missions already being implemented.

John Baker, director of the Small Sat Program - John Baker, emphasized that these innovative projects have become a catalyst that helps motivate future adventurers.

Meanwhile, speaking at the awards ceremony, Chief Marco engineer Andy K Meat said: "It is an honor to be recognized by our colleagues at this special conference. He builds new, bold projects to explore the Solar System, and we hope MarCO will carry out its mission of paving the way for them. "