NASA's seven-minute scare is about to land on Mars

NASA scientists will go through 7 minutes of heart-beating when watching InSight expedition ship fly over the atmosphere and land on Mars.

The Insight spacecraft of the US Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA) will begin its journey to land at Mars at 2h40 on November 27 in Vietnam time and land at 2:54 pm on the same day, according to Science Alert. Later, NASA hopes to use Insight to decode the structure inside Mars along with many other mysteries.

After 6 months of flying, the probe's 358 kg heavy landing station will separate from the journey floor and plunge into the atmosphere of the red planet. At first glance, the landing station looked a bit like the recovery compartment in the Apollo missions to the Moon in the 1960s and 1970s with a conical design and a smooth and flat bottom. This bottom is an important heat shield that protects the probe when flying through Mars's thin atmosphere.

Grounding is an extremely difficult challenge. The ground floor will cross the Martian atmosphere at an initial speed of 19,795 km / h and come into contact with the atmosphere precisely at a 12-degree angle. If flying more smoothly, the probe will shoot into deep space. If the flight is steeper, the probe will burn. The probe will fly through the atmosphere for 6 minutes 45 seconds before landing. During this period, the ship suffered a massive acceleration of 12 times the gravity of the Earth.

About 3.5 minutes after Insight entered the Martian atmosphere, though it would open to make the probe slow. 15 seconds later, the explosive will blow away the heat shield, revealing the Insight probe to actually hide inside. 10 seconds after the heat shield disappears, the probe will straighten the legs, similar to how the plane stretches the wheel to land.

The probe will fall for another two minutes with the device even though it is protected by a conical shell. About 45 minutes before Insight landed, the ship would empty its shell and fall to the ground. Immediately after exiting the shell, the ship's grounding missile will fire.

The Insight probe really looks a bit like Apollo's Moon landing device with three legs and box body. The missiles will help the ship fly more slowly and stop any movement horizontally. About 15 seconds before landing, the InSight probe will descend at 2.4 meters per second and can land gently on the surface of Mars.

The entire landing process will take about 7 minutes. Currently, the radio signal from Mars to Earth in 8 minutes 7 seconds. Therefore, the landing process will end before we know whether the mission is successful or not. All are conducted automatically by the probe. For Insight design scientists and engineers, this is "horrifying 7 minutes".

The Insight will study Mars's structure.

They have reason to worry because Mars is the grave of failed exploration ships. Space agencies tried to land on Mars 44 times but only 18 successful missions, 23 failed missions and 3 missions reached orbit but could not land.

Unlike NASA's Curiosity probe landing in 2012, InSight will not move around the planet's surface. Instead, the ship will stay in place and explore the structure inside Mars. InSight ships will broadcast radio waves that scientists can track from Earth. By measuring the change of radio frequency, they can determine the tilt of Mars when the planet rotates, thereby understanding the planet's core, its composition and melting point.

InSight will also deploy seismographs to record Mars earthquakes and collisions with meteorites. Information from seismic waves detected by the meter also helps to learn more about planetary structures. InSight will also dig 5 meters deep into the Martian surface with a jackhammer to measure the temperature.

The temperature measurement in deep soil allows planetary scientists to determine the amount of heat released from Mars. Through this measurement, they can determine the temperature near the red planet core. Information will reveal how Mars developed and how rocky planets, including Earth, developed.

In particular, researchers can explore the possibility of liquid water on the planet. If the soil near the surface is warm enough, the groundwater will be liquid instead of frozen. Finding liquid water will be an important finding that makes it easier to explore Mars.