On January 23, NASA conducted a key test for the next mission with the expansion of solar cells. They are planning to activate on the InSight spacecraft when it lands on the Red Planet in November 2018.
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (Pasadena) is responsible for the mission, and the test itself was conducted at Lockheed Martin Space (near Denver). This is the last time developers have seen the device in a mundane configuration, before it arrives on Mars. Many important steps remain to be done, but this test is considered basic.
The launch window for InSight opens in May. Ventilation solar panels were specially designed for the weak solar illumination of the Red Planet, caused by its remoteness from the star and the dusty, thin atmosphere.
The panels plan to activate for one Martian year (two terrestrial) in the first mission, the purpose of which is to study the Martian interior.
In fact, the device will first recognize the conditions created by another 4.5 billion years ago. Scientists use a seismometer to capture the pulse of the planet, a thermal probe will measure the temperature, and radio experiments will respond.
The latest innovation from engineers is a microchip with 1.6 million names provided by the public. He will join the first chip with 827,000 names attached in 2015. This is one of the ways to connect the public to space research.
Microcircuits are made at the LJE Microdevices Laboratory. Each character in width is pulled out only 400 nanometers. This is surprising, because the width of a human hair is 100,000 nanometers, and blood cells are 8,000 nanometers.
