In the coming days, humanity will witness three historical events at once - three robotic missions are approaching Mars, which will be engaged in the search for microbial life or its traces on the red planet. The first robotic apparatus, which will enter the dim atmosphere of the planet, will be "Hope" ("Nadezhda") - a research probe of the United Arab Emirates, launched to MARS on July 19 last year. Today, on February 9, he must enter the Red Planet orbit. Nine days later, on February 18, 2021, the NASA Mission's Mission "Perseverance" must make a complex landing on the surface of Mars. The planting process will be broadcast live, but the signal will go with a 11-minute delay. Finally, tomorrow, on February 10, the Chinese Interplanetary Station "Tianwean-1", consisting of orbital and descended devices, will be released into orbit around Mars, after which the study of the landing area will begin. Perhaps so many guests our neighboring planet has not yet accepted.
Landing "perseverance" on Mars
The most impressive and dangerous moment will come in a few days, February 18, when the mission "perseverance" will begin descent to the Martian surface. This robotic NASA apparatus is the largest of ever run on the red planet. Landing "perseverance" will give humanity something unique: the cameras attached to the descent apparatus will record the entire descent, including the sound - regardless of the result. "Perseverance" should land in the region, where in the opinion of scientists in the past there were a river bed.
Researchers, however, the upcoming landing is not described as "seven minutes of horror." So, in about 12 seconds before landing, "perseverance" will reset the cables to the surface of the planet and fixes the wheels and "legs" in place. Once the wheels of the marshode will touch the surface, the cables will be cut. Perseverance land (or breaks) on the surface of the Red Planet February 18, 2021 at 21:00 Moscow time. In detail about each stage of landing, I told in this material.
I note that radio signals emitted by Perseverance from Mars move at the speed of light, but they still need as much as 11 minutes to get to our planet. Consequently, by the time the NASA control center receives a signal about the beginning of the landing, "perseverance" is either already sitting on Mars, or breaks about its surface. If everything goes well, we will see photographs made by seconds after landing. Then, after a couple of months of checking and setting up the equipment, "perseverance" will be able to begin full work.
What will be the development of space in the near and not very future, read on our channel in Yandex.Dzen. There are regular posts that are not on the site.
Entrance "Hope" into the orbit of Mars
So, today on February 9, the automatic station Al AMAL (الأمل) of the United Arab Emirates should go into orbit around Mars. With a successful exit to the orbit, the Al A AMAL probe will become a fifth country that has reached the red planet. It should be noted that the entire operation will be autonomous, and whether the "hope" can enter the orbit of the planet Earthlings will learn 27 minutes after the start of the maneuver. In case of failure, the probe can become a lonely space traveler or crashing about the surface of Mars. Follow the trajectory of the Al AMAL flight here.
"The first image of Mars will be obtained from Al A AMAL devices during the passage of elliptical orbit, also known as the" Capture orbit ", which passes from the next to the planet of the trajectory," is reported in the material of the WAM informational agency. Scientists hope that in the event of a successful entry into orbit, the probe will begin research.
For the first time in history, three missions are sent to Mars, while each mission is headed by a separate country. Today, the United States, China and the United Arab Emirates are prosperous cosmic powers.
Among the main tasks of the Arab mission are the study of Mars and its weather, as well as the compilation of the first full map of the planet. The data obtained, as the researchers hope, will help to understand why the Martian atmosphere loses hydrogen and oxygen. The mission is designed for one Martian year with the possibility of extension as much as much. At the point of waying to orbit, Nadezhda will overcome the path of 493.5 million km and for half an hour will burn almost half of the fuel to slow down from a speed of 121,000 km / h to 18,000 km / h.
Landing "Tianwean-1"
The Mission "Tianwean-1" sent to MARS includes an orbital apparatus, a landing machine and a small mobile rover. The station is heading to the northern hemisphere of the planet - Utopia Planitia is an ideal place for a soft landing. It is believed that in the area there is a huge stock of icy water, which can be a strategic point of piloted expeditions in the future. As N + 1 writes, in a picture of Mars, which the device made at a distance of more than 2.2 million kilometers from the surface of the planet, the largest canyon system is visible in the solar system.
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The station will enter orbit on Wednesday on February 10, and then start studying the landing area to determine the right moment to separate the landing platform. The scientific leaders of the mission noted that "Tianwean-1" will not land until the end of April - the beginning of May, and at least 90 Martian days should work on the surface of Marsa Tianwean-1. After the expiration of this period, the station will switch to a circular orbit and deploy a scientific program for a duration of one Martian year.
One of the goals "Tianwean-1" is a demonstration of the possibility of working on Mars of automatic devices created in China. If all stages of landing will be successful, China will become the third country after the Soviet Union and the United States who have committed a soft landing on Mars, and the second country that controls the robot robot on the red planet. Until now, only NASA has been successfully planted.