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NASA is headed back to Mars! Saturday 5 May 18
http://abc7.com/science/nasa-launching-spacecraft-to-mars-from-vandenberg-afb/3429610/ ^ | 4 May 18 | hapnHAL

Posted on 05/04/2018 9:24:34 PM PDT by hapnHal

NASA is headed back to Mars! The InSight spacecraft is scheduled to rocket away from Vandenberg Air Force Base early Saturday morning.

Live coverage of the countdown and launch of an Atlas 5 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California with NASA’s InSight lander heading to Mars to study the red planet’s interior structure.

Saturday’s launch is just the first step in InSight’s voyage to Mars. Launching a probe to another planet is not routine, but most scientists will have more butterflies when InSight approaches its destination late this year. Asked whether he will be more nervous during InSight’s launch or landing, the mission's principal investigator, Bruce Banerdt replied: “EDL (Entry, Descent and Landing), without a doubt … Launching a spacecraft, it’s not that it’s trivial because they’re super-careful, and they’ve got all these different bases covered, but they really know what they’re doing. It’s a lot more deterministic.

“The Atlas has an amazing success record of getting things into the correct orbit, the trajectory that it’s planned for. I’m reasonably confident.

“EDL is a whole different ballgame. It’s such an incredible engineering challenge to land this tiny little spacecraft on another planet, which we know pretty well, but is still a pretty mysterious planet. ”


TOPICS: Astronomy; Chit/Chat; Science
KEYWORDS: astronomy; atlas5; brucebanerdt; elonmusk; falcon9; falconheavy; insight; mars; nasa; science; spaceexploration; spacex

1 posted on 05/04/2018 9:24:34 PM PDT by hapnHal
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To: hapnHal

Why they going back there? I guess they could pickup the flag our Astronauts put there and bring it back to Shiela Jackson Lee. Still seems like a waste of money.


2 posted on 05/04/2018 9:47:53 PM PDT by Equine1952 (The left sucks. That is why your toilet flushes.)
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To: hapnHal; All

https://www.space.com/40441-insight-mars-lander-launch-viewing-guide.html


3 posted on 05/04/2018 9:51:38 PM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either satire or opinion. Or both.)
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To: Equine1952

> Still seems like a waste of money. <

I agree with you. Debtor nations should restrict their spending to necessities only. I guess that makes us lacking in vision, or something like that.

But I don’t care. If you don’t have the money in the first place, don’t spend it.


4 posted on 05/04/2018 9:58:22 PM PDT by Leaning Right (I have already previewed or do not wish to preview this composition.)
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To: hapnHal

Launching on the 57th anniversary of Alan Shepard’s Freedom 7 flight.


5 posted on 05/04/2018 9:59:55 PM PDT by NCC-1701 ((You have your fear, which might become reality; and you have Godzilla, which IS reality.))
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To: Equine1952
Why they going back there?

InSight will provide an interior snapshot of Mars to learn more about how rocky planets are formed. A heat probe will dig under the surface to look at the temperature of the interior. A seismometer will measure marsquakes and meteorite hits. In addition, a radio science instrument will transmit InSight's position to Earth as the planet wobbles in its orbit around the sun. The wobble provides information about the composition and size of the Martian core.

Or, to put it succinctly....


6 posted on 05/04/2018 10:04:48 PM PDT by Simon Green ("Arm your daughter, sir, and pay no attention to petty bureaucrats.")
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To: hapnHal

Hope all the Nuts and Bolts are tight on this one.


7 posted on 05/04/2018 10:10:15 PM PDT by Kickass Conservative ( THEY LIVE, and we're the only ones wearing the Sunglasses.)
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To: hapnHal

The InSight Mars lander is scheduled to launch on Saturday (May 5) at no earlier than 4:05 a.m. PDT (7:05 a.m. EDT/1105 GMT). Here’s how you can watch it in person, or online at Space.com or other locations. You can watch the launch live on Space.com beginning at 6:30 a.m. EDT (1030 GMT).


8 posted on 05/04/2018 10:12:09 PM PDT by jonrick46 (Trump continues to have all the right enemies.)
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To: Equine1952

Still seems like a waste of money.

I think Governor Moonbeam’s 77 billion dollar “Bullet Train” is a real waste of money. barf,barf !!


9 posted on 05/04/2018 10:13:40 PM PDT by hapnHal
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To: hapnHal
E. R. Burrough's genius is going to bankrupt us yet...


10 posted on 05/04/2018 10:19:51 PM PDT by mrsmith (Dumb sluts: Lifeblood of the Media, Backbone of the Democrat/RINO Party!)
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To: hapnHal

Hooray! Cause 20 trillion dollars down the drain isn’t enough!


11 posted on 05/04/2018 10:21:40 PM PDT by Texas Eagle (If it wasn't for double-standards, Liberals would have no standards at all -- Texas Eagle)
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To: hapnHal

Isn’t it rare to launch interplanetary stuff from Vandy and not the Cape?


12 posted on 05/04/2018 10:25:34 PM PDT by NonValueAdded (#DeplorableMe #BitterClinger #HillNO! #cishet #MyPresident #MAGA #Winning #covfefe)
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To: Leaning Right; Equine1952

>> I guess that makes us lacking in vision, or something like that.

Words of a pensioner.


13 posted on 05/04/2018 11:43:42 PM PDT by Gene Eric (Don't be a statist!)
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To: Gene Eric; Equine1952

> Words of a pensioner. <

I’m not quite sure what you mean there, Gene. Unless you mean that a wise pensioner will carefully watch his money, and not go into ruinous debt. If that’s the case, then I’ll certainly accept the label of “pensioner”.


14 posted on 05/04/2018 11:59:48 PM PDT by Leaning Right (I have already previewed or do not wish to preview this composition.)
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To: Leaning Right

LOL, yes.


15 posted on 05/05/2018 12:01:24 AM PDT by Gene Eric (Don't be a statist!)
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To: hapnHal

why is the West coast being used,
instead of the Cape?

surely, an escape trajectory does not
need a polar orbit.

is the Atlas booster
specific to Vandenberg?


16 posted on 05/05/2018 12:40:19 AM PDT by RockyTx
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To: RockyTx
Saw this in the Press Kit for the mission:

"For InSight, the Atlas V 401 offers enough performance to enable launching a Mars mission southward from Vandenberg, mitigating a more-crowded launch schedule in Florida."

17 posted on 05/05/2018 12:49:41 AM PDT by Textide (Lord, grant that I may always be right, for thou knowest I am hard to turn. ~ Scotch-Irish prayer)
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To: hapnHal

Good sighting from San Diego up to first stage cutoff.


18 posted on 05/05/2018 4:21:03 AM PDT by cabojoe
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To: Equine1952

Still seems like a waste of money.

Yeah. Knowledge is vastly over rated ... we need to concentrate our greatly diminished and extremely limited financial resources on the homeless disadvantaged racially discriminated and the LGBTXX communities for real impact to improve the economy and lead the world in fighting climate change and social justice while implementing a universal income and free schooling and including navel gazing lessons for every one who asks regardless of national origin or method of entry into this broke and broken country !!


19 posted on 05/05/2018 5:53:09 AM PDT by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now it is your turn ...)
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