NASA InSight Landing on Mars: Milestones
On Nov. 26, NASA's InSight spacecraft will blaze through the Martian atmosphere and set a lander gently on the surface in less time than it takes to cook a hard-boiled egg.
On Nov. 26,
NASA's InSight spacecraft will blaze through the Martian atmosphere and attempt
to set a lander gently on the surface of the Red Planet in less time than it
takes to hard-boil an egg. InSight's entry, descent and landing (EDL) team,
based at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, along with another
part of the team at Lockheed Martin Space in Denver, have pre-programmed the
spacecraft to perform a specific sequence of activities to make this possible.The following
is a list of expected milestones for the spacecraft, assuming all proceeds
exactly as planned and engineers make no final changes the morning of landing
day. Some milestones will be known quickly only if the experimentalMars
Cube One (MarCO)spacecraft are providing a reliable communications
relay from InSight back to Earth. The primary communications path for InSight engineering
data during the landing process is through NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
and Mars Odyssey. Those data are expected to become available several hours
after landing.If all goes
well, MarCO may take a few seconds to receive and format the data before
sending it back to Earth at the speed of light. The one-way time for a signal
to reach Earth from Mars is eight minutes and seven seconds on Nov. 26. Times listed
below are in Earth Receive Time, or the time JPL Mission Control may receive the
signals relating to these activities.11:40 a.m. PST (2:40 p.m. EST) - Separation from the cruise stage
that carried the mission to Mars11:41 a.m. PST (2:41 p.m. EST) - Turn to orient the spacecraft
properly for atmospheric entry11:47 a.m. PST (2:47 p.m. EST) - Atmospheric entry at about 12,300
mph (19,800 kph), beginning the entry, descent and landing phase11:49 a.m. PST (2:49 p.m. EST) - Peak heating of the protective heat
shield reaches about 2,700°F (about 1,500°C)15 seconds later - Peak deceleration, with the intense heating
causing possible temporary dropouts in radio signals11:51 a.m. PST (2:51 p.m. EST) - Parachute deployment15 seconds later - Separation from the heat shield10 seconds later - Deployment of the lander's three legs11:52
a.m. PST (2:52 p.m. EST) - Activation of the radar that will sense the distance
to the ground11:53 a.m. PST (2:53 p.m. EST) - First acquisition of the radar
signal20 seconds later - Separation from the back shell and parachute0.5 second later - The retrorockets, or descent engines, begin firing2.5 seconds later - Start of the "gravity turn" to get the
lander into the proper orientation for landing22 seconds later - InSight begins slowing to a constant velocity (from
17 mph to a constant 5 mph, or from 27 kph to 8 kph) for its soft landing11:54 a.m. PST (2:54 p.m. EST) - Expected touchdown on the surface
of Mars12:01 p.m. PST (3:01 p.m. EST) - "Beep" from InSight's X-band
radio directly back to Earth, indicating InSight is alive and functioning on
the surface of MarsNo
earlier than 12:04 p.m. PST (3:04 p.m. EST), but possibly the next day - First
image from InSight on the surface of MarsNo
earlier than 5:35 p.m. PST (8:35 p.m. EST) - Confirmation from InSight via NASA's
Mars Odyssey orbiter that InSight's solar arrays have deployedFor the latest
updates on InSight's status, visit:https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/timeline/landing/status/The InSight
press kit, with additional information about the mission time line, is
available at:https://go.nasa.gov/insight_pkJPL
manages InSight for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. InSight is part of
NASA's Discovery Program, managed by the agency's Marshall Space Flight Center
in Huntsville, Alabama. Lockheed Martin Space in Denver built the InSight
spacecraft, including its cruise stage and lander, and supports spacecraft
operations for the mission.A
number of European partners, including France's Centre National d'Études
Spatiales (CNES) and the German Aerospace Center (DLR), are supporting the
InSight mission. CNES provided the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS)
instrument, with significant contributions from the Max Planck Institute for
Solar System Research (MPS) in Germany, the Swiss Institute of Technology (ETH)
in Switzerland, Imperial College and Oxford University in the United Kingdom,
and JPL. DLR provided the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3)
instrument, with significant contributions from the Space Research Center (CBK)
of the Polish Academy of Sciences and Astronika in Poland. Spain's Centro de
Astrobiología (CAB) supplied the wind sensors.For more
information about InSight, visit:https://mars.nasa.gov/insightInSight's
success does not depend on MarCO being able to relay communications. Additional
information about how InSight will communicate during entry, descent and
landing is availablehere. JPL,
a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages MarCO
for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.