NASA, international InSight mission nail PERFECT landing on Marswritten by Chris Gebhardt November 25, 2018
The Martian Challenge:From the 1600s to the 1960s, all the information humanity had on Mars came solely from ground-based telescopes – a feat in itself. But with the dawn of rocketry came a new means of exploring the tantalizing Red Planet that had for so long captured our imaginations and fancy.
Since the beginning of the space age, the exploration of Mars figured prominently in the space programs of the United States and Russia (formerly the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) – expanding in the 1990s to include Japan, in the 2000s to include the European Space Agency (ESA), and in the 2010s to include India and China.
On 10 October 1960, Earth’s first space probe to Mars was launched by the USSR. Named Mars 1M No.1, the mission ended shortly after liftoff in a launch failure. And with that failure, the reality of up-close exploration of Mars was realized.
Mars was never going to be easy, and it was going to challenge us in ways we didn’t expect. Since 10 October 1960, 56 missions (some bundled together resulting in two missions launching together) to Mars – be they flybys, orbiters, landers, rovers, and/or sample returns – have been launched by NASA, Russia/USSR, Japan, ESA, China, and India.
Of those 56 missions, 56 to date, including InSight and the Mars Cube One flights, have attempted to successfully arrive at Mars and either flyby, insert themselves into orbit, or land on the surface.
Of those 56 attempts, the results stand as thus:
Successes Partial Successes Failures 27 8 21
This gives an overall global average for Mars mission success of 48% if only complete successes are taken. To say the least, the figures tell a clear story of how difficult in-situ exploration of Mars is, and the figures for landers and rovers are even more daunting.
In all, 19 lander/rover missions have been attempted to Mars, including InSight. Of those, 8 have ended in failures, 3 in partial successes, and only 8 in successes – a 42% success rate.
Despite those daunting global odds, NASA has a nearly unbelievable success rate with Mars lander/rover missions. Including InSight, NASA has sent 11 landers/rovers to Mars with an 82% success rate. Only the Mars Polar Lander and Deep Space 2 hard landers (two components of the same mission) crash-landed on the Red Planet in 1999 due to improper hardware testing.
Despite that failure (and a few others), NASA’s overall Martian success rate is an impressive 80%, with accomplishments including:
-First completely successful mission to Mars with Mariner 4
-First successful Martian orbiter with Mariner 9
-First completely successful Martian landing with Viking 1
-First successful Martian rover with Sojourner
-Longest-surviving Human technology on another world with the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity.
InSight was the 19th lander to attempt a touchdown on the Martian surface.
https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2018/11/nasa-mars-fleet-insight-landing-red-planet/Wątek misji Insight:
https://www.forum.kosmonauta.net/index.php?topic=1086.msg125148#msg125148O polskim udziale w misjach marsjańskich:
Artykuły astronautyczne
Wątek: Sondy marsjańskie - misje historyczne (Przeczytany 42534 razy)