Insight Lander on Mars

[grober]

Todays the day- well at 10pm GMT tonight to be more accurate, when the NASA's Insight Probe lands on Mars. Designed to monitor seismic activity on Mars I am slightly surprised since I didn't think Mars had a molten core anymore having lost its magnetosphere allowing cosmic radiation to strip off most of its atmosphere??
Mars probe set for '7 minutes of terror'

 

[grober]

Touchdown!
First picture dust on the lens cap and horizon clearly visible.

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[Colesy]

Glad I'm not the only one who gets excited by this stuff.
Although the lack of replies suggests there's not many of us

 

[Benzowner]

Count me in

 

[grober]

A selfie from MARS

 

[addbuyer]

I love it too. I have a friend in Spain who has a wonderful set up and studies the sun. He has written a book on it, has a website (About Me) and even sends reports to NASA.
Andy Devey even offerers solar explorer courses with B&B

 

[ash59fifty-uk]

Love this kind of stuff. Recently done some work where they build parts of/remotely control/and test the mars Rover

Giant warehouse filled with terrain and an expensive rolling robot driving around using a games console controller, sounded and looked way cooler than anything I’ve had the pleasure of experiencing before

 

[grober]

Over 60% of MARS missions have ended in failure! Perhaps the most notorious was the NASA's 1999 Mars Climate Orbiter which burned up in the Martian atmosphere because engineers failed to convert US imperial units to metric. The problem was in the software controlling the orbiter's thrusters. The software calculated the force the retro thrusters needed to exert in pounds of force. A separate piece of software took in the data assuming it was in metric : newtons.
Nov. 10, 1999: Metric Math Mistake Muffed Mars Meteorology Mission

 

[WDB124066]

I don't like the idea of destroyers' having a place to run to.

 

[grimree]

I don't like the idea of destroyers' having a place to run to.

I may be thick (probably am) but I didn't get this?

 

[moonloops]

I may be thick (probably am) but I didn't get this?

Star Destroyer found on Mars? 'Crashed UFO' resembles famous Star Wars ship

 

[renault12ts]

This stuff interests me too. One of my 1st cousins was very involved with the the Cassini Mission from his base at QMUL.

Great first pics from Insight.

 

[WDB124066]

The Captain stays with the ship...

 

[Benzmanc]

I love this stuff too, i used to be a member of The Manchester Astronomical Society but haven't been for a few years now

 

[Deleted member 126969]

I watched it. Always try to catch this sort of thing. Glad it got down OK.

 

[zipdip]

Well I must admit I thought it world crash and burn but not in that order,but well done to them they seem to have achieved what they set out to do.