Last Tuesday, the official account of the “Insight” probe on Mars published a tweet saying: “My energy is weak, and this may be the last photo I will send, but do not worry .. My time here was calm and useful.”
The probe is an unmanned spacecraft launched into space to collect scientific information about planets and other celestial bodies, as these vehicles send data to Earth for scientists to analyze and study.
The probe appeared covered with dust and sand in its last image, before the US Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) officially announced the retirement of “Insight” after 4 years on the surface of the Red Planet.
Thus, NASA remains with another mission on Mars, which is the “Perseverance” probe, which was launched in July 2020 and arrived on Mars during February 2021.
And that rover continues to prepare a collection of Martian mineral samples for future analysis on Earth.
NASA launched its first vehicles to explore Mars in 1997, when the previous experiments finally ended, and the “Perseverance” probe and the “Curiosity” probe remained.
Although NASA launched unmanned vehicles into space from the fifties AD, the first vehicle launched with the aim of exploring Mars was in 1997.
Over the past twenty-five years, it has conducted many spacecraft studies Curated to dramatically improve our understanding of the Red Planet.
NASA explains that there are many strategic, practical and scientific reasons that drive humans to explore Mars, among which we know that the Red Planet is the most accessible place in the solar system.
In addition, the exploration of Mars provides the opportunity to answer questions about the origin and evolution of life and could one day be a destination for the human race.
“Sojourner”
In 1997, NASA took its first step to explore the Red Planet with a mission called “Pathfinder” through the “Sojourner” probe, which spent nearly 4 months exploring Mars.
In the Pathfinder mission, it is the first time in the interplanetary programs that data and images from Mars have been accessed by the public through Internet technology.
And “Sojourner” transferred 550 images from Mars to scientists, with the aim of analyzing them to gain new insights about the history of the Red Planet and the suitability of humans to live on it.
“Spirit” and “Opportunity”
After NASA landed its first rover, Sojourner, on Mars in 1997, NASA sent its more advanced rover Spirit and Opportunity on similar missions in July 2003. By their arrival in January 2004, both Spirit and Opportunity had surpassed The expected operating life is 90 days.
Spirit operated for 2,208 sols – 2,249 Earth days – before finally stopping on March 22, 2010.
Opportunity spent 5,110 sols – 5,250 Earth days – more than 14 years – working the distance before a planetary dust storm ended its mission on June 10, 2018.
These two missions revealed the geology of vast plains on Mars and yielded evidence of ancient water formations, among other discoveries.
“Phoenix”
On May 25, 2008, the Phoenix spacecraft landed in the northern polar region of Mars, making it the first spacecraft to land in that region of the Red Planet.
The Phoenix probe’s goals included searching for evidence of water ice and evidence of the habitability of Mars in the past.
It found direct evidence of water ice, confirming orbital observations by the Mars Odyssey spacecraft launched in 2001, but leaving open the question of whether Mars would ever be habitable to some forms of human life.
The Phoenix vehicle operated until November 2 of the same year, 67 Martian days after the end of its expected life, as it fell victim to the approaching Martian winter with very cold temperatures and low sunlight.
Curiosity
On November 26, 2011, NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory launched a new spacecraft called Curiosity, which plunged into the 96-mile-wide (154-kilometer) Gale Crater during August 2012 on a mission to determine if the area could support microbial life.
The probe team quickly determined that Gale Earth had been a habitable environment for billions of years, harboring a lake and stream system that could potentially last for millions of years at a time.
Curiosity continues to build on previous discoveries and confirmed that liquid water once flowed on Mars during a wetter period in its history.
And this vehicle took thousands of pictures not only of the landscape on Mars, but also of celestial bodies on an exploratory mission that is still ongoing.
According to a scientific paper published by the “Life Science” website, researchers reported in a new study that some of the crushed rock samples collected by “Curiosity” over the years contain organic materials rich in a type of carbon that here on Earth is associated with life, according to what was reported by the “Curiosity” website.Space.com“.
“insight”
Subsequently, NASA launched the “Insight” probe in 2018, which recently retired from work, as it monitored in total more than 1,300 “Martian earthquakes”, including what arose from the impact of smaller meteorites, and scientists all over the world will benefit for many years from the data he collected. .
During Christmas Eve 2021, the Insight probe was able to detect a meteorite hitting the surface of Mars, causing tremors of four degrees.
These tremors were detected by the seismometer of the “Insight” probe, which landed on Mars about four years ago, about 3,500 km from the impact site.
Perseverance
In NASA’s last mission to search for traces of ancient life on Mars, the American probe “Perseverance” set off towards the Red Planet in the summer of 2020.
This mission is being supported by more than 350 scientists from different scientific fields and is likely to continue for at least two years.
The main “Perseverance” mission focuses on searching for traces of previous life on Mars, but scientists consider that they have serious evidence that
This planet was warmer three billion years ago and many rivers and lakes flow in it, which are components that, on Earth, at least, led to the presence of microbes. But the red planet then turned cold and dry for a reason planetary scientists still don’t know.
Perseverance is the largest and most complex spacecraft ever sent to Mars. It was manufactured in the famous “Jet Propulsion” laboratory in California, and weighs close to a ton. It was equipped with a robotic arm that exceeds two meters in length, in addition to 19 cameras.