MarCO has sent a signal to Earth!

NASA has received radio signals from MarCO satellites. This is proof that the first two CubeSat satellites in history, which aim at a mission outside the Earth's orbit, are in good shape. The signal "Polo! has been collected twice.

Twin MarCO satellites (Mars Cube One) have been added to the InSight mission. However, they are not part of it, they will not conduct any research and their possible failure will not affect the InSight mission. Small CubeSats were sent from InSight by the way. It has been decided to check whether such devices are suitable for carrying out tasks in deeper parts of space.

The people responsible for the MarCO mission admit that they have lost a lot of nerves. Indeed, miniature satellites have not been switched on since mid-March, when their last tests were carried out. It was not clear whether anything had failed in the meantime and, above all, whether they had enough energy in their batteries to develop the solar panels, to move towards the Sun and switch on the radio transmitters. MarCO will be intensively tested in the coming weeks. If they survive the cosmic radiation and are scheduled to reach Mars' orbit, they will witness the landing of the InSight mission and use it to transmit signals during the "Seven minutes of horror". This is the name that defines the time of greatest uncertainty for each Martian lander. As the signal from Mars to Earth runs for seven minutes, the control center of the Martian missions receives signals from landings while they are trying to safely land on the Red Planet. So when the Earth is informed that everything is fine, the lander may actually be lying shattered on the surface of Mars. NASA's film on the occasion of the landing of the Curiosity rover tells the story of "Seven Minutes of Horror".

CubeSatellites are small cubic satellites that weigh from 2.5 to 15 kilos. They are modular devices, which makes them easier to build than large satellites, which are designed separately each time. NASA decided to use the InSight mission to test the durability of the CubeSats, their radio transmitters, solar panels, drive systems and position control systems.

When the InSight mission reaches Mars and lands, its main channel of communication will be the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and other devices. However, if MarCO works as a signal transmitter, it is possible that CubeSaty will be connected to future missions, and their task will be to collect data from the landing vehicle on an ongoing basis, so that in case of a failure it will be possible to accurately reproduce its course.