Augmented reality is a new approach to digital storytelling that we are exploring. Read about how to use it on your phone or tablet here.
Augmented reality is a new approach to digital storytelling that we are exploring. Read about how to use it on your phone or tablet here.
Missions to Mars
In July 1965, the Mariner 4 spacecraft flew past Mars and took the first close-up image of another planet, a series of numbers that impatient engineers colored by hand.
Since then, Earth has sent 18 spacecraft to try to land on Mars or its larger moon, Phobos. Five never made it, four crashed into Mars and two failed after landing. Only seven touched down softly and survived to take their own photographs.
NASA’s InSight spacecraft launched on May 5 and is scheduled to land on Mars on Nov. 26.
If successful, the lander will join two rovers still operating on the surface and a growing fleet of spacecraft studying the planet from Mars orbit.
Listening for Marsquakes
After landing, InSight will unfurl its solar panels and use its robotic arm to place two instruments on the Martian surface.
Robotic arm
Solar panels
Seismometer
Heat flow probe
Robotic arm
Solar panels
Seismometer
and protective
dome
Heat flow probe
Robotic arm
Solar panels
Seismometer
and protective
dome
Heat flow probe
Robotic arm
Solar panels
Seismometer
and protective
dome
Heat flow probe
A seismometer under a protective dome will listen for marsquakes, which have never been confirmed.
InSight’s seismometer can detect vibrations smaller than the diameter of an atom, and should be able to sense meteorite impacts and the tidal swelling of the ground from the gravity of the moon Phobos.
A smaller device will try to hammer itself about 16 feet into the Martian soil, to measure heat flow from the interior of the planet.
Mars and Earth share a similar past, and what InSight discovers could help explain the formation of other rocky planets, both within our solar system and orbiting distant stars.
Wet Mars
Mars today is dry and dusty, but long ago it had rivers and oceans, and may have been hospitable to life.
Previous missions to Mars have tried to “follow the water” by digging for ice or searching for rocks shaped by water.
InSight will complement that search by looking deep inside the planet.
With luck, InSight’s seismic readings might discover evidence of underground aquifers or help explain how gases from the magma filled the early Martian atmosphere.
Six Months to Mars
InSight was not alone during its six-month cruise to Mars. Two small CubeSats, each about the size of a briefcase, trailed behind to monitor the spacecraft’s descent onto the planet’s surface.
After months of flight, one of the CubeSats returned a test image of Mars in early October.
InSight launched on May 5 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. It was the first interplanetary mission to launch from the West Coast.
Watch a video preview of InSight’s mission to Mars:
Produced by Graham Roberts, Jonathan Corum and Marcelle Hopkins. AR experience design and production by Mika Gröndahl, Evan Grothjan, Yuliya Parshina-Kottas, Karthik Patanjali, Miles Peyton. AR and WebGL development by Jon Huang, Ben Wilhelm and Blacki Migliozzi.
Cover image of Mars by the Viking 1 orbiter, from NASA and the United States Geological Survey.
Mars mission map from the USGS Astrogeology Science Center and Arizona State University’s Mars Space Flight Facility.
InSight model by NASA, Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the California Institute of Technology, adapted and simplified for augmented reality by The New York Times.
Early Mars map by European Southern Observatory/Martin Kornmesser.
Sources – NASA, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio and the Maven Science Team.
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