InSight EDL, 26 Nov 2018 Options

[nprev]

Good morning from Los Angeles! Today at approximately 1954 GMT InSight will touch down in Elysium Planitia, and this is where we'll discuss all the events associated with that. NASA TV (link) will provide live coverage starting at 1900 GMT. Official status updates will be published here (link)

Here's a list of significant events (source: JPL). Times listed first are Earth-received US Pacific Standard Time (GMT-8):

11:40 a.m. PST (2:40 p.m. EST) — Separation from the cruise stage that carried the mission to Mars
11:41 a.m. PST (2:41 p.m. EST) — Turn to orient the spacecraft properly for atmospheric entry
11:47 a.m. PST (2:47 p.m. EST) — Atmospheric entry at about 12,300 mph (19,800 kph), beginning the entry, descent and landing phase
11:49 a.m. PST (2:49 p.m. EST) — Peak heating of the protective heat shield reaches about 2,700°F (about 1,500°C)
-15 seconds later — Peak deceleration, with the intense heating causing possible temporary dropouts in radio signals
11:51 a.m. PST (2:51 p.m. EST) — Parachute deployment
-15 seconds later — Separation from the heat shield
-10 seconds later — Deployment of the lander's three legs
11:52 a.m. PST (2:52 p.m. EST) — Activation of the radar that will sense the distance to the ground
11:53 a.m. PST (2:53 p.m. EST) — First acquisition of the radar signal
-20 seconds later — Separation from the back shell and parachute
-0.5 second later — The retrorockets, or descent engines, begin firing
-2.5 seconds later — Start of the "gravity turn" to get the lander into the proper orientation for landing
-22 seconds later — InSight begins slowing to a constant velocity (from 17 mph to a constant 5 mph, or from 27 kph to 8 kph) for its soft landing
11:54 a.m. PST (2:54 p.m. EST) — Expected touchdown on the surface of Mars
12:01 p.m. PST (3:01 p.m. EST) — "Beep" from InSight's X-band radio directly back to Earth, indicating InSight is alive and functioning on the surface of Mars
No earlier than 12:04 p.m. PST (3:04 p.m. EST), but possibly the next day — First image from InSight on the surface of Mars
No earlier than 5:35 p.m. PST (8:35 p.m. EST) — Confirmation from InSight via NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter that InSight's solar arrays have deployed


Get the peanuts ready, and let's land on Mars!

GO INSIGHT!!!

[Guest_Steve5304_*]

I'm getting too old for this kind of stress! Great news and congrats to the team.

yeah right. I always forget this happened 27 minutes ago. We are getting delayed data.

[kenny]

8 soft landings out of 9 attempts since 1976 --- what a record ! Congratulations to all.

[nprev]

SURFACE IMAGE!!!! Dust cover is dusty!!!

[Paolo]

It looks like a few bugs splattered on the camera during descent

[Guest_Steve5304_*]

SURFACE IMAGE!!!! Dust cover is dusty!!!

link

[MahFL]

Lander is nominal.

[nprev]

[Steve G]

Screen capture

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[MahFL]

[Guest_Steve5304_*]

will that lens cover come off?

[MahFL]

Post landing briefing at 5pm EST.

will that lens cover come off?

Yes.

[Mongo]

Slightly enhanced image:

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[nprev]

Yes, of course. Not till it's safe to do so, though (gotta let the landing dust settle) and there are other critical events of higher priority, particularly solar panel deployment.

[fredk]

First image up already!
https://mars.nasa.gov/insight-raw-images/su...0000_0106M_.PNG
The surface looks very smooth.

[Steve G]

Okay, this is a quick ten minute job to remove the worst of the dust. More dust than Mars, unfortunately.

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