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You are here: Home / Open Threads / TOUCHDOWN

TOUCHDOWN

by David Anderson|  November 26, 20182:57 pm| 45 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Science & Technology

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Our @NASAInSight spacecraft stuck the #MarsLanding!

Its new home is Elysium Planitia, a still, flat region where it’s set to study seismic waves and heat deep below the surface of the Red Planet for a planned two-year mission. Learn more: https://t.co/fIPATUugFo pic.twitter.com/j0hXTjhV6I

— NASA (@NASA) November 26, 2018

Open thread for cool discoveries yet to happen!

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Previous Post: « It’s apt to confuse me because it’s such an unusual sight
Next Post: He came at the queen. He missed. »

Reader Interactions

45Comments

  1. 1.

    cope

    November 26, 2018 at 2:59 pm

    First image.

  2. 2.

    Spanky

    November 26, 2018 at 2:59 pm

    Sometimes the magic works and …
    sometimes the magic still works.

  3. 3.

    Yutsano

    November 26, 2018 at 3:00 pm

    SPAAAAAAACE!!!

    Someone made the joke that if InSight found oil colonies would spring up on Mars overnight.

  4. 4.

    Spanky

    November 26, 2018 at 3:01 pm

    @cope: Bugs on the windshield.

  5. 5.

    cope

    November 26, 2018 at 3:01 pm

    Lots of dust on the lens.

  6. 6.

    Roger Moore

    November 26, 2018 at 3:02 pm

    @Yutsano:
    Until Amazon sets up a base there, shipping costs from Mars will remain a major PITA.

  7. 7.

    cope

    November 26, 2018 at 3:02 pm

    Never gets old, does it?

  8. 8.

    rikyrah

    November 26, 2018 at 3:03 pm

    The pictures are WOW…..

    Wow….

  9. 9.

    dmsilev

    November 26, 2018 at 3:04 pm

    Looks like we snuck another one in past the Martian defenses.

  10. 10.

    CaseyL

    November 26, 2018 at 3:06 pm

    Woo hooo!!!! It is utterly amazing what NASA can do! Great job!

  11. 11.

    oldster

    November 26, 2018 at 3:06 pm

    Ah, that’s great! I am so happy about that.

    Can we refer to this probe as “Chapelle”? Mars, bitches!

  12. 12.

    Mary G

    November 26, 2018 at 3:07 pm

    Speaking as an old broad who grew up watching the control center full of white men in white shirts, it is so exciting to see so many young women in the game today. Still pretty white, though.

    ETA: and Dense Pence calls in, ugh.

  13. 13.

    TenguPhule

    November 26, 2018 at 3:07 pm

    @dmsilev:

    Looks like we snuck another one in past the Martian defenses.

    Those giant martian border walls are murder.

  14. 14.

    spudgun

    November 26, 2018 at 3:08 pm

    @cope: No, it does not! :-D

    Amazing…and the cubesats!

  15. 15.

    The Moar You Know

    November 26, 2018 at 3:10 pm

    Well, America is still REALLY good at landing things on Mars. The surface is littered with pieces and ashes of Europe’s and Russia’s attempts to do so.

  16. 16.

    Spanky

    November 26, 2018 at 3:11 pm

    Here’s the AP headline:

    NASA says it has landed a spacecraft on Mars

    But who trusts them, any way?

  17. 17.

    spudgun

    November 26, 2018 at 3:12 pm

    @Mary G: Blergh…and just listened to the NASA administrator on the live feed gushingly praising the fascist orange to high heaven…bit of a damper on the proceedings.

    *sigh* Anyway – MARS! Yeah!

  18. 18.

    germy

    November 26, 2018 at 3:13 pm

    Actual “Man on the street” interviews from 1962, asking “Is there life on other planets?”

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkvffcxQzMY

  19. 19.

    dmsilev

    November 26, 2018 at 3:13 pm

    @TenguPhule: It helps if the probe can fly over the walls.

  20. 20.

    dexwood

    November 26, 2018 at 3:14 pm

    My wife called, her voice filled with excitement, because she was able to watch raw NASA feed in her co-worker’s office since he is a Mars geologist and consultant on this project and others. Pretty cool.

  21. 21.

    Brachiator

    November 26, 2018 at 3:16 pm

    @CaseyL:

    Woo hooo!!!! It is utterly amazing what NASA can do! Great job!

    Jet Propulsion Labs, and Caltech.

  22. 22.

    germy

    November 26, 2018 at 3:20 pm

    How are the previous mars rovers doing? I recall they thought one of them was no longer operational, and then a windstorm came along to blow all the dust off the solar panels, and the thing woke up again. This was a few years ago.

    Are they no longer functioning? They were pretty cool, taking soil samples and pictures.

  23. 23.

    germy

    November 26, 2018 at 3:21 pm

    Found On Mars: Statue Of Elvis

  24. 24.

    dmsilev

    November 26, 2018 at 3:28 pm

    @germy: Spirit is MIA and has been for a few years. Opportunity may have succumbed to the latest round of dust storms and winter; it’s been a few months since we’ve managed to hear from it, but there’s still an outside chance that it will pull through. Curiosity is still going strong. Mars 2020, which doesn’t have a nickname yet, is due to launch in …2020.

  25. 25.

    S Barker

    November 26, 2018 at 3:29 pm

    Thanks Obama!

  26. 26.

    OzarkHillbilly

    November 26, 2018 at 3:32 pm

    @dmsilev: They should’a built a wall.

    ETA @TenguPhule: beat me to it.

  27. 27.

    Cermet

    November 26, 2018 at 3:32 pm

    NASA has its up’s and down’s. This is certainly an Up!

  28. 28.

    Cermet

    November 26, 2018 at 3:34 pm

    Next, in five or so hours, the solar panels must successfully unfold. Otherwise, a short up. Doubt that will be an issue – the most dangerous step was the landing.

  29. 29.

    Chyron HR

    November 26, 2018 at 3:35 pm

    Trump is informed of the InSight landing.

  30. 30.

    Roger Moore

    November 26, 2018 at 3:36 pm

    @Brachiator:

    Jet Propulsion Labs, and Caltech.

    JPL is part of NASA. It’s administered by Caltech, but legally it’s part of NASA. It’s similar to the way that the Lawrence labs are run by UC but legally part of DOE.

  31. 31.

    Matt McIrvin

    November 26, 2018 at 3:38 pm

    @The Moar You Know: This lander’s design is heavily based on the Phoenix lander from 2008. Phoenix was so named because it inherited much of its instrument suite and hardware from a cancelled mission (Mars Surveyor 2001), and another one that crashed (Mars Polar Lander)–a rare US failure at a Mars landing. The latter was around the same time as the embarrassing orbiter mission failure from a mismatch between US and metric units.

  32. 32.

    TenguPhule

    November 26, 2018 at 3:42 pm

    @Matt McIrvin:

    The latter was around the same time as the embarrassing orbiter mission failure from a mismatch between US and metric units.

    Good times. Back then it was the most exciting news of the day.

  33. 33.

    Matt McIrvin

    November 26, 2018 at 3:48 pm

    @TenguPhule: Well, I guess the race for the 2000 presidential nominations was already on at that point, but I recall people treating the whole business as a snoozer (always a danger sign). It was several months after they’d tried and failed to get rid of Bill Clinton… Lots of apprehension about Y2K, too…

  34. 34.

    dmsilev

    November 26, 2018 at 3:48 pm

    @Matt McIrvin:

    The latter was around the same time as the embarrassing orbiter mission failure from a mismatch between US and metric units.

    Forever after an object lesson used by intro science TAs to hammer home ‘always check your units’.

  35. 35.

    TenguPhule

    November 26, 2018 at 3:51 pm

    Alabama police have backtracked further from their claims about Emantic Bradford Jr., who was initially described as an active shooter after an officer killed him in a suburban Birmingham shopping mall on Thanksgiving evening.

    In a regretful statement the next day, police said the actual gunman had apparently escaped the Riverchase Galleria — but still maintained that Bradford, 21, “was fleeing the shooting scene while brandishing a handgun” when an officer shot him in a corridor outside the JCPenney store.

    In a third statement Monday, police raised doubts about whether Bradford even had his gun out when officers encountered him.

    “We can say with certainty Mr. Bradford brandished a gun during the seconds following the gunshots,” the statement reads, “which instantly heightened the sense of threat to approaching officers responding to the chaotic scene.”

    This fucking story is getting worse by the day.

    Police change explanation — again — after killing black man they mistook for an active shooter

    We’re on excuse version 3.0 from the Alabama cops at this point.

  36. 36.

    Matt McIrvin

    November 26, 2018 at 3:53 pm

    @Cermet: The biggest risk after landing is probably going to be deploying the new instruments. One of them is a heat probe that’s supposed to bore 5 meters underground.

  37. 37.

    dm

    November 26, 2018 at 3:56 pm

    @TenguPhule: the ones measured in feet aren’t so bad, but the metric ones are awful.

  38. 38.

    VOR

    November 26, 2018 at 3:58 pm

    @Mary G: Pence is the guy who visited NASA, saw a satellite labeled “Do Not Touch”, and immediately touched it.

  39. 39.

    TenguPhule

    November 26, 2018 at 4:00 pm

    @dm: well played.

  40. 40.

    Cermet

    November 26, 2018 at 4:05 pm

    @Matt McIrvin: No panels, no probe and the mission is over. But the mission is pointless if the arm doesn’t work. So, yes to all.

  41. 41.

    Mnemosyne

    November 26, 2018 at 4:19 pm

    I am wearing my space otter socks at work in honor of this day.

    Because space otters.

  42. 42.

    schrodingers_cat

    November 26, 2018 at 4:28 pm

    @Mnemosyne: Did you see the story about the otter stealing and killing precious koi in Canada? I think they haven’t caught him yet.

  43. 43.

    David Evans

    November 26, 2018 at 5:35 pm

    @The Moar You Know: Agreed, alas. On the other hand Europe’s Mars Express orbiter has been doing a good job of mapping the Martian surface in 3D for 15 years, and will be available as a data relay for InSight when its cubesats are out of range.

  44. 44.

    Mnemosyne

    November 26, 2018 at 5:37 pm

    @schrodingers_cat:

    I have not, but I can’t really blame the poor beast. Otters may be the most adorable members of the weasel family, but they’re still vicious predators at heart, just like our pet kittehs.

  45. 45.

    schrodingers_cat

    November 26, 2018 at 5:40 pm

    @Mnemosyne: He hasn’t been captured yet, they are relocating the koi.

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