Gadgetory

tonight insite has landed Mars's latest visitor has officially touched down and it's ready to start its two-year mission to survey the interior of the red planet but now that it's arrived safe and sound can we all talk about how freaked out we were also the big question who invented that special NASA handshake I'm Claire Railly welcome to watch this space from the Senate studios in Sydney this is your weekly guide to everything on earth you need to know about space and tonight nASA has safely landed its insight mission 91 million miles away on the surface of Mars what have you done this week that's right the team of scientists at NASA JPL flew a seven hundred and eighty nine pound Lander over 269 million miles to another planet it hit the Martian atmosphere at twelve thousand three hundred miles per hour entered at the perfect angle then slowed down deployed a parachute and blasted out its own legs with pyrotechnics to ensure a perfect touchdown all this done with pre-programmed commands and no control from earth talk about the ultimate look mom no hands but it worked shortly before noon Pacific time on Monday the 26th of November it all went off without a hitch and in sight landed touchdown confirmed okay there's a few things we need to get out of the way first off that countdown incites descending we're hearing the meters countdown as it gets closer and closer to the surface you couldn't write it better if you're in Hollywood 200 meters 80 meters 60 meters but the best part of the countdown was easily the insight telecom team one of them looks like they're about to go to Disneyland the other one is just sitting there watching the culmination of his life's work lower quivering oh just roll the tape 50 meters continent velocity 37 meters 30 meters 20 meters 17 meters standing by for touchdown there is literally no way to watch that and not weep like a child with you watching in Times Square or sitting at your kitchen table in Australia watching the live feed eating peanut butter out of a jar and openly crying at 7:00 a.m. not that I know also let's talk about that handshake you just know that between getting an entire mission to another planet these two took the time out to come up with the world's best callsign for the NASA secret Superfriends but all the celebrations were kind of moot because while JPL and the rest of the world were watching back here on earth the landing had already happened it takes about eight minutes for signals to reach earth from Mars so while we were biting our nails down here on earth inside had already landed up there and it was just chilling out drinking margaritas and quite frankly it deserves to according to NASA only about 40% of all missions sent to Mars have been successful because it's hard work which leads us to the seven minutes of Terror that's the term that nASA uses to describe the time it takes to get from the top of the Martian atmosphere down to the surface of it takes thousands of steps to go from the top of the atmosphere to the surface and each one of them has to work perfectly to be a successful mission and for all that time remember we're on a delay so while we're watching the most difficult part of the mission go down it's already happened when we first get word that we've touched the top of the atmosphere the vehicle has been alive or dead on the surface for at least seven minutes Wow I feel so invested I don't know about you but NASA makes damn good TV so what exactly happened in those seven minutes that made it so terrifying for the insight mission according to NASA it takes thousands of steps to go from the top of the atmosphere to the surface of Mars during the entry descent and landing stage first insight needs to ditch the crews stage that got it to Mars then turn around so it's heat shield faces the atmosphere it needs to enter at a precise angle of 12 degrees so it doesn't burn up or bounce off the atmosphere all together after decelerating from 13,000 to 1,000 miles an hour insight deploys a parachute blasts off at each shield and then shoots out three legs ready for landing the spacecraft uses radar to measure how far it is from the surface of Mars and once it's a mile away the parachute separates from the lander and the lander starts its engines to safely descend to the surface before shutting them off as soon as it touches down so of all the steps of entry descent and landing happened perfectly and we are safely on the surface of Mars we'll be ready to do some exciting new science the good news all those steps went off without a hitch after flying through space alone for more than six months with its commands pre-programmed inside insight did us proud and made the perfect landing all by itself all that while its parents waited nervously 90 million miles away so what's next well inside is already sending us back postcards from its new home and from here the lander is going to probe deeper into Mars than ever before to learn more about its core as well as measuring seismic activity and measuring how much the planet shifts on its axis from this we'll learn more about the origins of Mars and even get insight into how earth was formed yeah kind of worth putting up with all the terror for that all right that's it for this week's edition of watch this space now if you want to know more about insight and the science behind the mission check out last week's episode and if you want to stay up to date with space news as it happens be sure to LIKE and subscribe I'm Claire I Lika Sina goodnight and Godspeed huh-huh you got to get that yeah no I have no friends to shake my hand yeah it's kind of new cuz I made that up this is only gonna get worse and a late up to Christmas