There’s a 40% chance of failure of the project, and we get to watch it as if we are in the Jet Propulson Lab in Cal Tech. This is the eighth attempt, 3 have failed.
I first saw the movie of landing on the Moon, about 70 years ago. Never never did I believe I would see a mission to Mars, live, on what was called a TV.
Quick, if you can watch this
TOUCHDOWN 2:53 Eastern — The exploration begins
Waiting for dust to settle. images will be shown shortly
First image shown. Announcer say lander reports it’s “happy” meaning the transmissions of functional element are all without defects. The NASA administrator describes the emotion, and the call from V.P. Pence who congratulated those that made this work
Jim Bridenstein, NASA Administrator, also described the 8 minute lag, (at the speed of light) from the transmission from Mars to Cal Tech control room. He described how NASA projects are ramping up, and the staff will be at work the next day.
These scientists are definitely having much to much fun!!!
3:21 Discussion of international participation of this project, representative from Germany and France. So, far, this exploration of our solar system is not been tainted by partisan politics. Not much left in the world that one can say this about.
This project, called “Insight” is a deep dive into the technology of planetary exploration. Robby Prakash, is the director, (wh0 grew a long beard for this event) They are now deploying their solar arrays. This ship has a long arm that can place objects on the surface. It will be a few months before these implements such as long arm will be deplored. He is describing how a mock up, called the sand box, had been used in the JPL. This is now being dismantled.
The CSPAN program is signing off
There is the website NASA.gov/mars that will be continuing with some replays and maybe some live programing.
Signing off 3:30 PM