It’s time to watch the Mars landing!

November 26, 2018 • 1:37 pm

It’s time to watch the InSight probe land–NOW!  A live video from NASA is below. Seven minutes until separation. and about 22 minutes till touchdown! Remember that it takes light (and radio signals) three minutes to get from Mars to Earth, so we won’t know whether the landing is successful until 182 seconds after it occurs (if it does).

. . . so far so good. It’s fricking amazing that our species can take the temperature of another planet.

. . . aaaand. . . TOUCHDOWN CONFIRMED! What a species we are!

55 thoughts on “It’s time to watch the Mars landing!”

    1. It’s about 20 minutes so I can’t figure out how they got that image so quickly and also how they were able to confirm that deploys happened other than we were learning about it 20 minutes late & it had already happened.

      1. It’s 9 minutes late. Which means if there was a snafu any time during the 7 minute landing phase, we wouldn’t know ’till well after the fail. The fact that everything has already happened doesn’t seem to effect the intense focus of the team as information comes in. It’s just like real-time.

        1. Yes, we are closer to Mars right now. The farthest point would take approximately 20 minutes.

          And no, I understand it seems immediate for us but think of how frustrating it is knowing that you can’t do a thing. You need to just come along for the ride as soon as the craft gets far from Earth.

    1. Actually, God created humans to be sub-creators. Like farming out a great work of literature to a team of freshmen writers.

      At least that was Tolkien’s view.

  8. Launches are far more visually satisfying but successful landings are emotionally so. Even having absolutely no ties to this program beyond casual interest, when I heard the confirmation I couldn’t help but pump my fist in the air and get a lump in my throat. Now to wait for the cool data stuff to roll in…

    1. If I were on that project team during the launch, I’d sneak into the corner so no one would hug me.

      1. Im sure if I were on that project team the others would have avoided hugging me. I’d have dinner plate sized sweat stains under each arm.

        1. Great find! I will recommend it to my friend with Asperger Syndrome. 😀 (We share that kind of humor.)

        2. Haha. I’m not shy, I just don’t like people hugging or touching me. If you are pn the spectrum, I’m the perfect non spectrum pal for you as I won’t touch you.

    1. Did you watch it up until they interviewed two European scientists and talked about the collaboration of many nations on this project?

      If anything, I’m amazed by our entire species right now. Despite our destructive tendencies, things like this give me hope for our kind.

        1. Apropos, did he say/tweet anything about it, or was it too positive and “sciency” for any snide remarks?

          If I remember correctly, the NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine said that the vice president congratulated him on the phone right after the successful landing. He got a call from a number with all zeroes, so he knew it was someone important. 🙂

  11. To stay on a positive note – maybe they can find some jobs for the laid off GM employees up there.

    1. Yeah I was just reading about the Cubesats. They are just small too – the size of a brief case. I guess used as a PoC.

      1. They said on the stream that the Cubesats were an experiment themselves. NASA did send two of them in case one would break down, but both of them worked perfectly. \o/

        In the future, these devices could be developed to be much more than mere relays. They could be equipped with sensors and other scientific equipment. They are also relatively cheap, because a good share of their parts are standard components.

        1. That emoji reminds me of this one:

          ~~~\o/~~~~/|~~~~

          Which is supposed to show a shark in the water with a swimmer.

  13. Well played NASA.

    Just remind me: what precisely was the religious input into the planning and execution of this amazing mission?

    1. Morality, of course. Without religion, NASA’s staff would just kill each other instead of poking holes into god’s firmament.

      (Sorry for the double post, WP just decided once more to detach my reply from the original comment.)

  14. Morality, of course. Without religion, NASA’s staff would just kill each other instead of poking holes into god’s firmament.

  17. It’s now been confirmed that the solar panels have been deployed, which was another phase that is critical to the mission’s success.

    Congratulations to all at NASA and at Lockheed Martin Space for a remarkable accomplishment. And congratulations also to NASA for their intelligent and informative TV coverage, which explained the mission and its significance very clearly, whilst allowing us to share vicariously in the “seven minutes of terror” and the joy and elation afterwards.

  18. I hope lots of schools were following this wonderful, exhilarating adventure in classrooms or special assemblys!

    1. I doubt it, most schools these days teach that ‘White Mans Science’ is inherently racist and sexist and should be ignored for soon it will be replaced with ‘other ways of knowing’.

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