Posted on 11/22/2018 6:58:21 PM PST by aquila48
All systems are go for landing on Mars on Nov. 26, NASA personnel affiliated with the InSight mission confirmed during a pair of news conferences held today (Nov. 21).
As of that news conference, the spacecraft had traveled about 295 million miles (475 million kilometers) of the 301 million miles (484 million km) that will make up its total journey. But one of the most serious hurdles remains, the entry, descent and landing process, which will begin at about 3 p.m. EST (2000 GMT) on Monday (Nov. 26).
"My heart is beating inside of my chest like a drum," NASA project manager Tom Hoffman said during the news conference. "While everybody's off having turkey tomorrow, there will be a bunch of people here at JPL [NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory] working all day long, hopefully taking a little bit of a break for a turkey dinner, but largely working to make sure we land successfully on Mars." [NASA's InSight Mars Lander: Full Coverage]
Part of that work will include determining whether the spacecraft needs one more tiny nudge to get it in place for the landing. Since it launched, InSight has made four tiny tweaks to its path to ensure it arrives on target. It was able to skip one additional maneuver because the others have gone so smoothly, and the team thinks the probe may be able to skip the final adjustment, scheduled for Nov. 25.
Lining up the spacecraft properly will boost the odds that everything will go smoothly during entry, descent and landing. Although that process lasts for less than 7 minutes, a lot could go wrong as the spacecraft abruptly slows from its initial speed of 12,000 mph (19,300 km/h) down to just 5 mph (8 km/h) when the lander touches down.
(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...
I’m sure we could hear the wind and the sound of the lander itself. Might be cool.
Because we waste money on other things instead. Why do you think?
Why havent we even seen the darkside of the Moon?
What do you mean by 'we'?
I guess you just weren't intellectually curious enough to google it?
That wasn’t the point of my post.
You did’t read the entire thing, did you?
*ping*
Let's just pretend it's a seismometer with a dome covering that serves as a wind and thermal shield.
“Coolness” or more taxation, what do you want?
They aren’t humans.
[the spacecraft had traveled about 295 million miles]
Wow. I hope there was at least a Denny’s somewhere along the ways. I DO see Nickerson’s Farms buildings here and there. Of course, they are no longer Nickerson’s Farms.....
No...these criminals are sub-human.
No problem, that pic was obviously taken of "Old Stretch" several face lifts back in the dark ages.
Apparently, she is fighting the appearance of a goatee after the latest face lifts that have her eyebrows halfway to her forehead.
Ghetto dwellers like Shartpton do not leave the inner-city limits. There be honkies with guns out there, and sharks if you wade deeper than your knees. Venture further only with CNN crew to provide security.
Pelousy is not long for this world, but who knows? Kieth Richards might have a clue.
Thanks fieldmarshaldj. NASA will accomplish much more when it finally ditches the ISS, which goes obsolescent in the mid- to late-2020s, and in the meantime returns very very little for the remarkable cost of building it, putting it into orbit, and rocketing crews up to it.
We could save a lot of money if we just put a rope ladder on the next space station.
It would hardly cost anything to add what I said.
By the time they got done with the climb, it would be time to make the reentry jump, a la Baumgartner.
No atmosphere, no sound (despite the sound track in SciFi battle scenes)
“But one of the most serious hurdles remains, the entry, descent and landing process...”.
Why is it a hurdle? After all this was done on the moon numerous times without one failure.
I bet they even have the far side of the moon on “Google Earth” (well - Google Moon) and you can fly around, zoom in on stuff, etc. Find old NAZI moon bases and stuff.
It’s got the floor jack and a pressure cooker.
The “Other Side”.
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