Live Mars Landing Coverage Begins in Just a Few Days

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Live Mars Landing Coverage Begins in Just a Few Days
https://www.flyingmag.com/watch-nasa-mars-insight-landing-live

By Rob Mark / News / Flying / flyingmag.com / 11/20/18 at 10:30am

“The National Aeronautics and Space Administration hopes millions of people across the planet will tune in to either NASA TV or the agency’s website on November 26 just before 2 p.m. EST and watch the scheduled landing of the MARS InSight on the surface of the red planet. The actual landing should occur about 3 p.m. EST. Launched May 5, InSight is NASA's first Mars landing since the Curiosity rover in 2012.

Live landing commentary begins at 2 p.m. EST on the NASA TV Public Channel with an uninterrupted, clean feed from cameras inside JPL Mission Control and mission audio only also available on NASA TV. NASA has set up 80 public viewing locations across the United States, as well as a provided a full list of websites broadcasting InSight landing events....”

InSight landing is the first for NASA since 2012.
Photo: NASA

 

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Landing on Mars is Harder Than You Think. Here's How NASA Prepares.
By Nadia Drake/ Science & Innovation/ National Geographic/ nationalgeographic.com

"Practice makes perfect when sending a robot on the perilous journey to the red planet.



Please wish Julie Wertz-Chen the most boring week possible.

“If we’re bored, life is good,” the aerospace systems engineer says. After all, in just a few short days Wertz-Chen and her colleagues will attempt to safely set NASA’s InSight spacecraft on Mars. It’s a decidedly non-boring feat that could make this holiday week, which is normally full of extra stress for many of us, especially tense.

Landing a spacecraft on Mars might sound routine at this point, yet it’s anything but ordinary. Of the 50-odd times humans have flung various bits of hardware at Mars, whether destined for the surface or Martian orbit, more than half have failed. As of 2018, the United States is the only nation that has successfully put a rover on the surface of the red planet....."

Richard

 

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Flawless: NASA Craft Lands on Mars After Perilous Journey
By Marcia Dunn/ AP/ AP News/ apnews.com

"CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A NASA spacecraft designed to drill down into Mars’ interior landed on the planet Monday after a perilous, supersonic plunge through its red skies, setting off jubilation among scientists who had waited in white-knuckle suspense for confirmation to arrive across 100 million miles of space.

Flight controllers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, leaped out of their chairs, screaming, dancing and hugging, upon learning that InSight had arrived on Mars, the graveyard for a multitude of previous missions.

“Touchdown confirmed!” a flight controller called out just before 3 p.m. EST, instantly dispelling the anxiety that had gripped the control room as the spacecraft made its six-minute descent.

Because of the distance between Earth and Mars, it took eight minutes for confirmation to arrive, relayed by a pair of tiny satellites that had been trailing InSight throughout the six-month, 300-million-mile (482-million-kilometer) journey.

The two satellites not only transmitted the good news in almost real time, they also sent back InSight’s first snapshot of Mars just 4½ minutes after landing.

The picture was speckled with dirt because the dust cover was still on the lander’s camera, but the terrain at first glance looked smooth and sandy with just one sizable rock visible — pretty much what scientists had hoped for. Better photos are expected in the days ahead.

It was NASA’s — indeed, humanity’s — eighth successful landing at Mars since the 1976 Viking probes, and the first in six years. NASA’s Curiosity rover, which arrived in 2012, is still on the move on Mars......"

From Left, NASA officials Jim Bridenstine, Michael Watkins, Tom Hoffman, Bruce Banerdt, Andrew Klesh, and Elizabeth Barrett make statements under a photograph sent from Mars by the Insight Lander at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory Monday, Nov. 26, 2018, in Pasedena, Calif. (AP Photo/ Marcia Jose Sanchez)


Richard