NASA arrived on Red Planet and InSight on Mars

The NASA robot "InSight" landed on Mars and has already sent first images of the Red Planet. A video of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) shows a virtual overflight over the landing site Elysium Planitia.

After a journey of approximately 485 million kilometers, the lender launched in May "InSight" set off on the Elysium Planitia plain north of the Mars equator on the red planet on Monday.

In the photographs of the German Aerospace Center (DLR), the supraregional topography of the landing site can be seen within a radius of a few hundred kilometers from different perspectives. The first scene is approaching from north to south with the Elysium Mons, about 13 kilometers high, followed by a loop and overflight of the Elysium Planitia plain from southeast to northwest with a view to the landing ellipse and finally a third "flight leg" Northeast to southwest on the area north of the crater Gale, the NASA Rover Curiosity examined since 2012.

The two round awnings with a diameter of about 2.20 meters have already collected sunlight on Mars, said NASA. In clear air, they can generate 700-watt energy for the probe. "The InSight team is able to rest a little easier tonight - now that we know the awnings are extended and recharge the batteries," Project Manager Tom Hoffmann said.

What is InSight?

InSight is a stationary geophysical observatory and a mission of the NASA Discovery Program. On board, the provincial probe is, inter alia, a French seismometer for recording quake waves and vibrations resulting from meteorite and asteroid impacts as well as the thermal probe HP developed and built by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) (Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package).

From January 2019, the Mars mole will hammer fully automatically down to five meters into the underground of the Red Planet and help measure its internal warmth. A few hours earlier, the probe had landed on Mars. "Landing confirmed!" NASA said from her control center in Pasadena, California. Their loud cheers broke out, scientists jumped up and hugged each other.

A few minutes later, InSight already sent a first photo of the Red Planet. Although the picture was very blurry, that was probably due to the clouds of dust raised during the landing. In the coming days, InSight may be busy finding suitable locations to place their gauges with a robotic arm.

Although Europe has not yet managed its own successful Mars landing but is involved with various high technology on the InSight mission. The Graz Institute for Space Research (IMF) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences is involved in the evaluation of the data.

The experimental equipment aboard the landing platform includes a ramming probe built in Germany, which is to hammer a hole on the surface of Mars down to a depth of five meters. A French seismometer is on board. 

With the InSight stationary geophysical observatory, the scientists want to investigate the interior of Mars and its structure for the first time in the next two years. This should be measured possible shocks and earthquakes on the planet. The researchers hope to discover, among other things, how Mars arose billions of years ago.

NASA sends space a laser to study ice on Earth

NASA launched on Saturday its most advanced laser ever placed in orbit, the ICESat-2, a billion-dollar mission to reveal the extent of melting ice on a warming Earth.

The half-ton satellite was powered by a Delta II rocket from Vandenberg's US Air Force base in California at 06:02 (1302 GMT).
"Three, two, one, take off!", Said a NASA official on the television channel of the US space agency.

"Launch of ICESat-2 to explore the polar ice sheets of our ever-changing planet". 

The countdown has begun. The NASA must launch Saturday, September 15, a satellite of a half ton, the most advanced it has ever placed in orbit. ICESat-2 is to be powered by a Delta II rocket from the US Air Force Vandenberg Base in California. The shooting window, forty minutes, should open at 08:46 local (2:46 pm Paris time). We present you this new space mission to a billion dollars. This mission is "extraordinarily important for science," Richard Slonaker, NASA's ICESat-2 Program Manager, told reporters earlier.

For almost ten years, the agency no longer had an instrument in orbit to measure the thickness of areas covered by ice across the planet. ICESat-2 is intended to reveal the extent of melting ice (glaciers and pack ice) on a warming Earth. It takes over from a previous mission, ICESat, which was launched in 2003 and was completed in 2009. Thanks to it, scientists had learned that the pack ice was getting finer and the surfaces covered with ice disappeared from the coastal regions of Greenland and Antarctica.

The previous mission, ICESat, started in 2003 and ended in 2009. Thanks to it, scientists learned that the pack ice was becoming finer and that ice-covered surfaces were disappearing from the coastal regions of Greenland and Antarctica.
Since then, surveys have been conducted using an aircraft as part of a mission called Operation IceBridge overflight of the Arctic and Antarctic.

But an update is urgently needed.

With ICESat-2, the measurements will be "extremely precise", the thickness of a pencil, assured a member of the team, Kelly Brunt. "We are going to be able to look specifically at how the ice is changing over a single year," said Tom Wagner, a researcher with NASA's cryosphere (ice) program.

The increasing use of fossil fuels on Earth is leading to a steady rise in greenhouse gas emissions, which are considered to be the main drivers of climate change.

The average global temperature is increasing year after year, with the four warmest years of modern times recorded between 2014 and 2017.

The all-new ICESat-2 is expected to help scientists understand the extent of the contribution of ice melt to rising sea levels. This mission is "extraordinarily important for science," said Richard Slonaker, head of ICESat-2 at NASA. For nearly a decade, the agency no longer had an instrument in orbit to measure the thickness of ice-covered areas across the globe. Surveys were done by aircraft on a mission called Operation IceBridge that flew over the Arctic and Antarctic, but new data is needed.

Especially since global warming is going well, the four hottest years of modern times having been recorded between 2014 and 2017. The thickness of glaciers in the Arctic and Greenland is shrinking, increasing the phenomenon of rising levels of oceans that threaten hundreds of millions of people in coastal regions around the world.

The mission is supposed to last three years but the satellite has enough fuel to last for a decade if its officials decided to extend its life.