Hi, hello, I’m reporting from the media room at JPL for the #InSight #MarsLanding. From now on until it’s over I’m going to keep my Twitter feed clean of anything except landing-related news. I’ll likely do a Q and A on Twitter today after the post-landing press briefing. 
Here is my landing timeline:
planetary.org/blogs/emily-la…
You can watch the uncommented feed (just the control room) here: nasa.gov/multimedia/nas…
And the commented feed (with talking heads) here: mars.nasa.gov/insight/timeli…
planetary.org/blogs/emily-la…
You can watch the uncommented feed (just the control room) here: nasa.gov/multimedia/nas…
And the commented feed (with talking heads) here: mars.nasa.gov/insight/timeli…
Julie Werz Chen reports from mission control they've heard from Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and are in telemetry lock with both MarCO-A and -B. This is promising for receiving telemetry from InSight via the cubesats live throughout the landing. #InSight #MarsLandingDay
The CubeSats still need to do a "slew" (a turn) in order to have the right geometry to receive data from InSight and retransmit it onwards to Earth. Standing by now for news of that slew. #InSight #MarsLanding
"We can confirm we are entry minus 20 minutes." "Star tracker has been powered off." The Star Tracker is a device on the spacecraft that helps with interplanetary navigation. Now no longer needed. Transitioning to NAV-2 software, using velocity & acceleration from this point on.
Confirmation of the slew for the MarCOs. They are now configured for "bent pipe" relay -- they receive from InSight, decode telemetry, and will transmit on to Earth.
UHF carrier detected. MarCO A and B both have lock on InSight's signal.
Cruise stage separation! Have lost X band signal from InSight. Ground Stations have detected signal. InSight is healthy and transmitting UHF signals.
Vehicle has performed turn to entry orientation, is now correctly oriented for entering the Martian atmosphere. Heat Shield is ready to do its work.
Both MarCO CubeSats have telemetry and are sending data from InSight to Earth. This wasn't crucial but will help us Mars fans know exactly what's going at Mars as it's happening.
This is a huge day for CubeSats!
They announced atmospheric entry -- this was announced on a timeline. Entry happens at a predictable time. The rest of it could vary by several seconds from my timeline because of today's weather.
Plasma blackout as expected. There's so much heat and ions surrounding the superheated entry vehicle that radio signals can't make it through. Hopefully we'll hear back from the spacecraft after this.....
It sounds like the MarCOs are still detecting a signal though, I think.....
CARRIER DETECTED. InSight is fine.
InSight has slowed to 1000 m/s. Parachute will deploy at 400 m/s.
Sudden change in Doppler. Speed change resulted from parachute deploy. Detected by ground-based radio telescopes. Telemetry now shows parachute deplouyment and landing radar powered on. Heat shield sep too.
We have radar activation. Radar beginning to search for the ground.
Radar has locked on the ground!!!
Carrier interruption on MarCOs
Lander sep commanded
Lander sep commanded
descending...
Touchdown confirmed!
Applause in mission control everybody's standing up HEY HOW ABOUT THOSE PICTURES
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter should've been in contact with the spacecraft for about 4.5 minutes after it landed. Maybe enough time for images to be taken and transmitted. We'll have to see.
They got a picture!!!
It's so flat!!! Matt Golombek you did a great job
To explain this photo:
- There is a dust cover on. The dust cover is covered with dust (black dots). It is also responsible for darkening the corners.
- You see a flat horizon and sky. This is a fish-eye camera, so it's distorted, making the horizon look like a hill.
- There is a dust cover on. The dust cover is covered with dust (black dots). It is also responsible for darkening the corners.
- You see a flat horizon and sky. This is a fish-eye camera, so it's distorted, making the horizon look like a hill.
X-band carrier detected! InSight has turned on its X-band radio! This is great news -- no matter what happens, the spacecraft is healthy and talking to Earth.
We are still waiting for solar panels to deploy. That's the next crucial thing, the last one where if something goes bad the lander is in jeopardy. Unfortunately, we will not know for about 5 hours, which is when Odyssey will fly over and receive telemetry.
All is nominal on the surface. Radio information indicates a healthy lander.
In 5 hours, we may hope to get more pictures, including one with dust cover off. Depends mostly on how quickly InSight gets lock with Odyssey, how long it stays in lock, to see if there's enough data for pictures.
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter reports it ended "open loop" recording of InSight telemetry (as expected) at 20:44:34. It'll now bundle up all that data and start relaying it to Earth.
On The Planetary Society @exploreplanets website: InSight Has Landed planetary.org/blogs/emily-la… I'll be updating this story throughout the day today.
Here's a quick-and-dirty attempt at processing out distortion in the first image from InSight. It does look like the lander is a bit tilted, which is not ideal, but the workspace looks flat as a pancake and nearly rock-free. I wonder what the thing right in front is though.
A different quick-and-dirty process by Ted Stryk paints out the dust spots.
Here's another processing take, this time focusing on sharpening up the view of the pebbles and rocks in the foreground. flickr.com/photos/lightsi…
The original image is available (in lossless PNG format!) here: mars.nasa.gov/resources/2215… (h/t @JPMajor)
OK, this is getting a little silly, I'll stop processing after this one, but: Here I took John Major's version of the image, de-distorted it and added a little extra high-pass filtering to bring out the pebbles more.
OFFICIAL LANDING TIME: 11:52:59 PST Earth Received Time. That corresponds to (according to my calculation, so caveat emptor) 19:44:52 Spacecraft Event Time. #InSight #MarsLanding
