End of a 548 Million Kilometer Journey; NASA's Lander Successfully Lands on Mars

The NASA lander, designed for exploratory missions on other planets, successfully landed on the surface of Mars on Monday night, December 5, and sent its first image. Members of the control team celebrated after receiving signals indicating its successful landing. This lander is equipped with advanced tools for measuring temperature and seismology, which have not been installed anywhere else except Earth. Named 'InSight', this spacecraft landed on Mars after a seven-month journey covering 548 million kilometers at approximately 11:25 PM Iran time. It passed through the Martian atmosphere at a speed of about 19,000 kilometers per hour, which decreased to eight kilometers per hour as it approached the surface. After landing, the lander remained stationary to allow the dust from its landing to settle before its solar panels began operating. The control center for this mission, located near Los Angeles, hopes to receive precise landing data through two small satellites sent into Mars' orbit alongside it. It is also expected to send images of its landing in the flat areas of Mars near the equator. This location is about 600 kilometers away from the landing site of NASA's last spacecraft, which landed on Mars in 2012. 'InSight', weighing about 360 kilograms, is the twenty-first spacecraft that NASA has sent to Mars. The first of these exploratory missions was in the 1960s with the 'Mariner' spacecraft flying through Mars' atmosphere. Since then, other countries have also sent more than ten probes to this planet and its atmosphere. 'InSight' will conduct exploratory missions for about 24 months or one Martian year to measure temperature and seismology. Collecting this data could help understand how Mars formed and, consequently, provide a more precise understanding of the origins of rocky planets, including Earth. NASA states that the activation and operation of the main equipment of this lander will take between two to three months.