It’s already the sol (Martian day) at Jezero Crater when @NASAPersevere will land!
Mars time is it’s own wild thing, but we establish a local time of noon when the sun would on average be overhead, and a Sol 0* on the day of landing. @NASAPersevere will land at about 3:53 pm local time (so on Sol 0, it’s really close to Eastern time)
*fun fact: I chose Sol 0 for the landing day on @MarsCuriosity with my colleague John Gilbert as it wasn’t consistent across all Mars missions. I’m guessing it’s now heritage for @NASAPersevere!
The wild thing about the sol being nearly 40 minutes longer than the day is that every day you’re moving almost a full time zone. There’s a reason they gave us “I survived 90 sols” badges for the team after working on Martian time
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It’s always frustrating to see folks upset that we’re spending money on space when we could be spending it at home, but if you don’t mind, here are just a few personal reasons why I think this is a false dichotomy:
1) this money is spent on Earth. We don’t ship money to Mars, we employe people like myself. Almost everyone I know who works on this is trying to better humankind. In addition to the job, folks spend so much extra time sharing our STEAM journeys publicly & in classrooms.
2) it’s inspiring. I literally work at NASA today because of Mars exploration. When Pathfinder landed in 1997, I had no clue what was possible. @NASAPersevere & others will inspire generations with the landing footage and helicopter and obvious passion of the team!
Hello stomach-in-knots feeling, it’s been awhile #CountdownToMars
I honestly forgot how nervous I was last time and it is hitting me now
The transmitter off command basically transitions @NASAPersevere to broadcast without locking on to the Deep Space Network signal. Doing that predictably helps keep the transition (and temporary loss of telemetry) out of the way of critical events
AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH (you have to scream inside your heart in space since sound doesn’t travel through vacuum)
I know we're focused on the landing and all that @NASAPersevere is hoping to accomplish, but despite our recent string of landing successes, space - and Mars - are incredibly challenging.
To all the brown people out there today (especially): YOU ARE AMERICAN ENOUGH. You make this country better and you deserve to be here and be treated with respect.
I see a lot of folks trying to reframe 9/11 as when magically for a moment we stopped being racist?
On 9/11 I was in Boston, having just arrived to the lab when I /2001 heard about the tragedy. Over the course of the next several days, I was yelled at from passing cars, called a sand N-word, had my hat knocked off my head walking to MIT.
Like can you imagine seeing these “stars” twirl around Jupiter and being like “Whoa dude” (experts do not agree that this quote is from Galileo and in fact may be from this author’s love of Bill & Ted). This is Galileo’s observations in 1610 (410 years ago)
Also fun fact, Galileo wanted to name the four moons after his patrons, the Medicis, and I have yet to see anyone offer this good a tier on Patreon. It was Kepler who suggested the mythological references we know and love today.
Sharing is caring, and I want to share with you one of the tricks we use at NASA to address risk. We all have risks / challenges in our lives.
(Don't be scared by the matrix)
I've used this for things that are uncertain in my personal life too. There's a few parts, so stick with me. The first part is to write down the risk in a "if x, because y, then z" format
So for example, If the spacecraft blows up, because a new hire sends the wrong command, then no more science