Satellites to broadcast status of Nasa’s InSight Mars lander

NASA’s tiny experimental satellites named Wall-E and Eve after Disney’s animated hit prepare to track the space agency’s first landing on Mars in six years

  • The experimental satellites, WALL-E and EVE, were launched into space in May 
  • Twin CubeSats have trailed 6,000 miles behind Nasa’s InSight to Mars lander
  • Nasa could know if InSight lands successfully within nine minutes next week 

A pair of tiny experimental satellites are poised to broadcast the status of Nasa’s InSight lander as it plunges into the atmosphere of Mars.

The world’s first interplanetary CubeSats will report the condition of the spacecraft as it makes its way through the Martian atmosphere on Monday.

The twin satellites, named WALL-E and EVE after the 2008 Disney Pixar film, will pass within a few thousand miles of the planet as the lander attempts a touchdown.

CubeSats WALL-E and EVE will report the condition of the Nasa InSight lander as it makes its way through the Martian atmosphere on Monday (pictured, an illustration of the satellites over Mars) 

Nasa will know whether the landing was successful in less than nine minutes if the CubeSats manage to relay a signal to ground controllers more than 100million miles away.

It takes eight minutes and seven seconds for a radio signal to travel from Mars to Earth, and it should take less than a minute on top of that to get word from InSight.

The briefcase-sized satellites, part of the Mars Cube One project, were launched into space alongside InSight to Mars in May.


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Nasa kept the CubeSats around 6,000 miles behind the larger spacecraft as the trio made the 300million mile journey to the planet to prevent any collisions.

WALL-E and EVE were kept the same distance from each other for the same reason – but this ‘very loose formation’ has varied throughout the six month mission. 

The two satellites passed a series of radio-relay tests using signals from a big dish antenna near Palo Alto, California in June.

Nasa will know in less than nine minutes whether the spacecraft landed safely if the CubeSats manage to relay a signal 100million miles (pictured, engineer Joel Steinkraus tests a satellite in Pasadena, California)

Chief engineer Andy Klesh said the success of this trial gave engineers confidence in the CubeSats’ ability to do the same with InSight’s signals on landing day.

WALL-E and EVE also sent back photos of Mars, which at the time was a bright pinpoint, from eight million miles way last month. 

The twin satellites will venture past Mars and remain in an elliptical orbit around the sun following InSight’s landing. 

Engineers expect them to keep working for a few weeks beyond the landing depending on how long fuel and electronic reserves last.  

This Mars Cube One project, or MarCO, built and managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, cost £14.4 million ($18.5 million) to complete.

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