Mars lander Insight
 

For those that have the time NASA will stream the event today...

https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/timeline/landing/watch-online/

I am too squeamish to live stream this stuff.

I always have to check back later after reading about it.

So much that can go wrong no matter how high the level of planning.

I'm a fairly educated man but this stuff still thrills me. Imagine aiming at a spot in three dimensional space, calculating when an orbiting body will enter that space, firing a rocket at the calculated coordinates ( on 3 axes!) and hitting the target. Yes I know it's all highly predictable but dang. I should tell you that I am also still amazed by the fact that an airplane can fly. I understand the physics but still...

More so when as I understand it, this is not under remote control but rather some combination of AI and programming involving thousands of lines of code to make it happen.


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The math to figure that out was not even invented until the late 1960s. That ability allowed for the Voyager missions to be launched and do the grand tour, and they had to hit their spots to get the gravitational boosts necessary way back then.

Now with modern super fast computers the calculations can be done with ease. As long as all the data was input perfectly. :eek:

Yea, it is incredible. Only the USA has ever successfully landed on Mars, and deployed a remote vehicle to move around. And we only get it right about 50% of the time.

I just hope they've converted the meters to feet correctly or it'll be ten years worth of work down the tubes.
Good luck Insight!

A couple of other interesting details are the "seven minutes of terror". Thats the slowing period leading to landing.

The supersonic parachute sounds intriguing too.

I love these space ventures.

Cheers Richard

Can you imagine what one of the great minds of the past such as Archimedes, Galileo or da Vinci would think after being presented with these machines and their maths?

I not infrequently muse about what their reactions would be.

Calculus was not invented for several hundred years and it was invented SPECIFICALLY so that Newton could describe the physics of motion. Classical physics and Calculus go hand in hand.

As a machinist I ponder the simple invention of a ruler in awe.

To create a high precision part without the means to measure it; there is so much we no longer have to think about these days.

The rapid evolution of technology where electronics can allow us to create even if we do not know the sciences behind it are amazing.

A whole generation of people can advance technology even if they never learn calculus.

<iframe width="1280" height="720" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/PCKogFDM3Zg" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Is Mars metric?


;)

They crashed one 20 years ago because they didn't convert some data from inch to metric

^^^Yeah, it was a pretty hard landing, or rather crash landing. More than a few embarrassed scientists when they found out the root cause.

Would be cool if some Martian ray blasts it out of the sky right before it's anticipated landing.

Or this...(sorry for the youtube tire rack ad...)
https://youtu.be/LbQ7SMSpSto?t=40

Parachute deployed....

Edit: and landed!

whoioooohooooooo!!!!!!!!!

First picture has been received! Now we wait for 5 hours until the solar panels are deployed. A lot of stuff still needs to happen. As stated ALL fully computerized.

Hope they can find that Illudium Q36 space modulator!