Why NASA Chose to 'Vanilla Ice Cream' Landing Site on Mars for the InSight Lander

Why NASA Chose to 'Vanilla Ice Cream' Landing Site on Mars for the InSight Lander https://www.eresviral.com

Why NASA Chose to 'Vanilla Ice Cream' Landing Site on Mars for the InSight Lander







Sometimes, the best is boring, and that is certainly true when you try to place a lander on the surface of Mars, where any event is likely to be bad news.



	

	That's why the scientists carefully chose a flat, featureless extension of the Red Planet called Elysium Planitia for NASA Mission inSight Landing to maximize the chances of everything going well. The lander will arrive after a six-month cruise on November 26.

		"If Elysium Planitia were a salad, it would consist of romaine lettuce and kale, without dressing," Bruce Banerdt, NASA's principal investigator for the InSight mission, he said in a statement. "If it was an ice cream, it would be vanilla."

The[[Launch photos: NASA's InSight Mars Lander takes off at Atlas V Rocket]

		Landing on Mars is challenging under the best circumstances, which requires a carefully choreographed insertion into the atmosphere, a strong heat shield and an extremely durable parachute. Then there is the question of really landing, which is where the flat terrain like the one around Elysium Planitia becomes important, so that the ship does not fall accidentally or get trapped in a crack.





						


Artistic representation of the Mars InSight probe in Elysium Planitia, where it will land on November 26.

            						    Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech 


		Unlike the Opportunity and Rovers of curiosityInSight will be stuck in the same place during his entire stay on Mars, he has no way of moving on the surface of the planet. That means he must be able to do all his scientific research precisely where he lands.

		In the case of Lander inSight, that science focuses on studying the interior of the planet instead of its surface. Among its set of instruments is a probe that is buried 16 feet (5 meters) below the surface, which means that the team needed to find a landing site with rock through which the probe could drill.

		"Choosing a good landing spot on Mars is a lot like choosing a good home: it's about location, location, location," Tom Hoffman, InSight project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said in the statement. . "And for the first time in history, the evaluation of a Mars landing site had to consider what was below the surface of Mars."

		Of the initial 22 contenders, the team. eventually I reduced it just Elysium Planitia, or rather, an oval 81 miles (130 kilometers) long and 17 miles (27 km) wide across that plain. And while it may not be the best postcard, the view does not matter as much to the InSight team as it does to science.

		"If you were a Martian coming to explore the interior of the Earth as if we were exploring the interior of Mars, it would not matter if you sink into central Kansas or the beaches of Oahu," Banerdt said in the statement. "While I wait for these first images from the surface, I am even more anxious to see the first data sets that reveal what is happening far below our landing platforms, the beauty of this mission is happening below the surface." Elysium Planitia it is perfect."



	Email Meghan Bartels in mbartels@space.com or follow it @meghanbartels. Follow us @Spacedotcom Y Facebook. Original article about Space.com.

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