“CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Mars is about to get its first U.S. visitor in years: a three-legged, one-armed geologist to dig deep and listen for quakes.

NASA’s InSight makes its grand entrance through the rose-tinted Martian skies on Monday, after a six-month, 300 million-mile (480 million-kilometer) journey. It will be the first American spacecraft to land since the Curiosity rover in 2012 and the first dedicated to exploring underground.

NASA is going with a tried-and-true method to get this mechanical miner to the surface of the red planet. Engine firings will slow its final descent and the spacecraft will plop down on its rigid legs, mimicking the landings of earlier successful missions…”

https://apnews.com/80b0bb92a4a147a0bb0b99626c96044d

I will be following it online - hope its successful

I have always wondered how, when a planet has no atmosphere, how it has wind gusts and dust storms.

quote:

Originally posted by Steve Collins:
I have always wondered how, when a planet has no atmosphere, how it has wind gusts and dust storms.

Mars has an atmosphere, it's just very thin compared to Earth's. Mostly carbon dioxide.

Yup. 100 times thinner than Earth. 95% carbon dioxide. The rest is mainly nitrogen with small of argon, oxygen, and water vapor.

Monday Nov. 26th at 3:00 pm EDT, will watch.

I have a UPS tracking number for the InSight package.

1Z8X5374256031335

quote:

Originally posted by sigmonkey:
I have a UPS tracking number for the InSight package.

1Z8X5374256031335

You win again Monkey!

“CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A pair of tiny experimental satellites trailing NASA’s InSight spacecraft all the way to Mars face their biggest test yet.

Their mission: Broadcast immediate news, good or bad, of InSight’s plunge through the Martian atmosphere on Monday.

Named WALL-E and EVE after the main characters in the 2008 animated movie, the twin CubeSats will pass within a few thousand miles (kilometers) of Mars as the lander attempts its dicey touchdown.

If these pipsqueaks manage to relay InSight’s radio signals to ground controllers nearly 100 million miles (160 million kilometers) away, we’ll know within minutes whether the spacecraft landed safely…”

https://apnews.com/c121ff6fb2ba45dda7e11cdec2c306d3

“It’s been travelling through space for six months – but a $1billion Mars probe’s mission will come down to ‘six-and-a-half minutes of terror' on Monday.

Nasa’s latest spacecraft is due to begin its descent to the Red Planet’s surface just before 8pm GMT (3pm EST) – with helpless scientists watching the final few moments.

All being well, the InSight probe should enter the Martian atmosphere at 12,300mph before an array of 12 thrusters attempts to slow it down to 5mph for a safe touchdown.
…
Landings have proved a difficult hurdle for many missions. The Soviet Union never managed to land on Mars, and both attempts by the European Space Agency flopped.

By contrast, just one of Nasa’s previous eight attempts have failed. InSight, which blasted off from California in May, will rely entirely on its on-board computer to make last-second landing adjustments…”

https://dailym.ai/2QewtVB

I bet JPL and NASA are a bundle of nerves right now....

there is an approximately 40% failure rate on Mars probes

I am really hoping this is part of the 60% success

it has a really neat sensor package to look at sub-surface geology - really interested in why the core has cooled such that the magnetic field disappeared

this might answer that question

What time is it supposed to land?

quote:

Originally posted by PR64:
What time is it supposed to land?

The mission launched on 5 May 2018 at 11:05 UTC[12] and is expected to land[13] on the surface of Mars at Elysium Planitia on 26 November 2018 , at approximately 3 p.m. ET after a journey of nearly 300 million miles

Anyone here sign up to have their name on the lander?

https://mars.nasa.gov/news/828...o-mars/?site=insight

(I did. )

Super cool.

Confirmed parachute deployment.

Touchdown.

That's some awesome engineering there.