Insight lands on Mars today...

[rootabaga]

will you be watching?

I plan to, it will be lunchtime at work.

I think it’s cool that the landing takes less time than it takes for a signal to get to earth from Mars, so the fate of the probe won’t be known for a short while.

Watch NASA engineers track the harrowing landing of a spacecraft on Mars today

 

[Member 1919122]

40% success rate per Nasa

 

[Clementine_3]

I'm going to try to watch.

 

[olbriar]

I'll be watching off and on. That sort of use of our current technology fascinates me. It's too bad that each exploration represents such a huge investment and takes years from concept to completion to realize success or failure.

 

[Unforgiven]

The irony of watching a live stream of something we will be blind to for 7 minutes can't escape me. I'll have it streaming and will try to catch it.

 

[KBU2]

I'm glad that NASA don't stand for
Need
Another
Seven
Astronauts


anymore !!!

 

[Hadron]

The irony of watching a live stream of something we will be blind to for 7 minutes can't escape me. I'll have it streaming and will try to catch it.

Too young to have watched the Apollo missions live? There were a few minutes during re-entry when you were blind to what was happening (because no radio signals could get through the plasma that formed around the capsule). That was particularly nerve-wracking, especially since it sometimes went on longer than expected (ironically Apollo 13 was one of those).

 

[KBU2]

As I recall Apollo 13's blackout was so long because it was on the edge of being too shallow on its entry angle and perilously close to bouncing off and being lost forever in space. That story has so long intrigued me.

Any subject that heightens your interest is a good subject because your mind is a sponge and need to be filled with knowledge, because knowledge is power no matter how you get it or where you get it from.

 

[Hadron]

As I recall Apollo 13's blackout was so long because the capsule was on the edge of being too shallow on its entry angle and perilously close to bouncing off and being lost forever in space. That story has so long intrigued me.

That's what is so scary about the process: too steep and you burn up, too shallow and you bounce off, and the window isn't especially wide. Even as a kid watching these things there was a real relief when contact was regained, what it was like for mission control I can only imagine.

 

[Unforgiven]

Well, it looks like the got the imperial / metric thing right this time.

 

[today]

So it's on mother mars?

 

[Unforgiven]

Insight tweeted it's first picture.

 

[KBU2]

Wow that looks like the pigeon egg I found in a nest on my back porch. Wouldn't it be funny that a few billion dollars was spent to get a close-up picture of a pigeon egg? But all we have to do is go up there and see are they really up there right?.. lol

 

[Member2035261]

I'm looking forward to Kermit's on - the - spot "as it happened" coverage of the landing.

 

[KBU2]

Look I got to close up picture of Mars to!