Watch InSight's successful landing on Mars: Difference between revisions
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Watch InSight's successful landing on Mars (edit)
Revision as of 02:33, 27 November 2018
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[[File:NASA-InSightLander-FirstImageFrom Mars-20181126.png|thumb|center|500px|First image from the Mars Insight lander. The dusty lens cover will be removed - it was there to protect the camera from dust thrown up by the landing itself]]Some points of interest about this mission:
[[File:PIA22745-Mars-InSightLander-ArtistConcept-20181030.jpg|thumb|InSight lander artistic impression]]
* For astrobiologists, one particularly interesting thing about this lander is that it is the first one to use a robotic mole. It will drill to a depth of 16 feet (about 5 meters). This is of interest for astrobiology, especially for the search for past life. ExoMars will be able to drill to 2 meters using a different technique and nothing else has been able to drill to anything like this depth. Viking scraped a shallow trench and most just drill mms into rocks.
The UK [[Beagle 2]] lander was the first and only previous mission to send a small robotic mole to Mars, it landed successfully but sadly wasn't able to open the last of its solar panels and signal back to Earth. It is pioneering technology that could be useful for future astrobiological missions to Mars, though sadly Mars 2020 won't have a drill able to drill to any significant depth. ExoMars will, to a depth of 2 meters, but using a different method.
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