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NASA is landing the InSight on Mars today (successful landing)

Peru

Peru

Member
Oct 26, 2017
6,145


Landing:
Nov. 26, 2018
(~12:00 p.m. PDT/3:00 p.m. EDT / 8pm GMT)

InSight is a robotic lander designed to study the interior of the planet Mars. The mission launched on 5 May 2018 at 11:05 UTC and is expected to land on the surface of Mars at Elysium Planitia on 26 November 2018, where it will deploy a seismometer and burrow a heat probe.

'Seven minutes of terror' as Nasa's Insight probe descends to Mars

The InSight lander is expected to touch down at about 8pm GMT on Monday, and multiple critical steps will need to work perfectly. The spacecraft will hurtle into the thin Martian atmosphere at 13,200mph, deploy a parachute and fire 12 retro-thrusters to cushion its landing. Nasa calls the entry, descent and landing phase of its Mars missions the "seven minutes of terror". Confirmation of the landing will be beamed back to Earth via two experimental cube satellites that have trailed the probe to its destination.
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https://www.theguardian.com/science...error-as-nasas-insight-probe-descends-to-mars

Explore the InSight in 3D

Watch live online

 
cameron

cameron

The Fallen
Oct 26, 2017
23,838
insight-landing-sequeiqinf.png

http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2018/mars-insight-landing-preview.html

 
Xe4

Xe4

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,295
Go NASA go! Not sure how much I'll be able to watch live cause I'll be in class most the day, but really hoping for the best.
 
bionic77

bionic77

Member
Oct 25, 2017
30,895
Becks' said:
I bet every person in this NASA team has their butt clenched today.
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I was going to say the same thing.

Years of work and a ton of money come down to a few minutes today.

Must be super exciting though when it works.

I get excited if I can fix my car myself after watching a YT video that shows me exactly what to do. These MOFOs are sending a robot to another planet.
 
Himynameischris

Himynameischris

Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,624
I wanted to attended the watch party at the planetary society but couldn't get today off :( I'll be watching from work though.
 
Pickman

Pickman

Member
Nov 20, 2017
2,266
Huntington, WV
The MARCO cube sats are pretty cool tech they're using to get the info back to Nasa way quicker on the (relatively) cheap. It's a demonstration of tech project so it's not integral to the landing in any way, but it'll be cool if it works.
 
Akela

Akela

Member
Oct 28, 2017
1,849
Updating the software of the lander just a few days/hours before landing is pretty crazy.
 
Hoodbury

Hoodbury

Member
Oct 27, 2017
658
I have it on in the background while at work with no sound and I just see some guy laughing all the time.
 
Xe4

Xe4

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,295
Pickman said:
The MARCO cube sats are pretty cool tech they're using to get the info back to Nasa way quicker on the (relatively) cheap. It's a demonstration of tech project so it's not integral to the landing in any way, but it'll be cool if it works.
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Yeah, it's an under looked part of the mission (for obvious reasons), but it's really cool stuff. First time we've had a cube-sat orbiting around a planet other than Earth.

Of course it only works because of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, but it's still super awesome.
 
Xe4

Xe4

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,295
Bakercat said:
Someone explain why this robot is special compared to others already there?
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InSight is designed to study the geological activity of Mars (specifically its interior), whereas Opportunity and Curiosity are mainly there to look for signs that life could exist, by looking for evidence of water and stuff like that (though both had tools to measure geological and climatological activity, neither were the primary design of the rovers).
 
Crispy75

Crispy75

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,058
Bakercat said:
Someone explain why this robot is special compared to others already there?
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It'll be doing seismology, so studying the interior structure of the planet by listening to the sounds it makes. We don't know exactly what Mars is like underground. How thick is the crust? How soft is the mantle? Is the core liquid?

There hasn't been a good seismometer on Mars yet.
 
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