 [upbeat music]
 - After traveling through
 space for more than six months
 and crossing 300 million miles
 InSight has reached
 its destination,
 the red planet Mars,
  welcome to Mission Control
 at NASA's Jet Propulsion
 Laboratory, I'm Gay Yee Hill.
  Less than an hour
  from now InSight
 will begin the most harrowing
 six and a half minutes
 of the entire mission,
 EDL,
 entry, descent and landing,
 the team is as
 prepared as it can be,
but who knows what Mars
has in store today.
The cruise mission support area
  is filled with engineers
  monitoring the situation,
 and for the first time
 during a Mars landing
 you can be in the room too,
 we have a 360 degree camera
 in this control room,
  allowing you to experience
 the landing right
 along with the team.
  There you see it,
and to look up the link,
  just go to the
  InSight watch page
 you see there on the screen.
 And this mission has
 actually two control rooms,
 the second is that
 Lockheed Martin Space
 outside of Denver Colorado,
 engineers there
 are on console two.
Plus people all over
the world are tuning in
at museums and libraries
and other locations,
 including this one at the
 Pasadena Convention Center,
 and that's where friends
 and family are watching now,
 there will also be an
 opportunity to watch
 in New York City,
there they are cheering,
 there will also be
 an opportunity to
 watch in New York City
 when landing coverage gets
 displayed on the NASDAQ Tower,
 you see there in Times Square.
And of course if
you are watching
 please snap a picture
 and share it with us,
using the hashtag Mars landing,
 we'd love to see it.
 Now I'd like to introduce you
 to NASA administrator
 Jim Bridenstine,
 thank you for coming.
- Oh it's my honor,
thank you for having me.
 - We are so excited
 to have you here.
 - Great to be here.
 - So this is your
 first Mars landing?
 - It is in this job,
I have witnessed these I should
 say from the sidelines
 for many years,
 this is gonna be the eighth
  time we have a successful
  landing on Mars,
everybody knock on wood.
- That's right.
 - But this is the first time
 for me to participate
 as the administrator,
 so it's very exciting.
 - Excited, nervous?
- Not nervous, excited.
- Not nervous?
 - Look at the
 amazing people here,
  no way I could be nervous.
 - Alright, so we hope to have
 you back on set after landing
  and maybe take a couple
  of social media questions.
 - Absolutely.
 - If you would like to ask
 the administrator a question,
use the hashtag askNASA.
 And before you go you did
 ask about the lucky peanuts,
 so this is your bottle
 to take in there.
 - I will be happily
 munching on these.
- Alright thanks for joining us.
 - Thank you.
 - Now let's give
 you some background,
 InSight is short for
 Interior Exploration
 using Seismic Investigations
 Geodesy and Heat Transport,
 it's different from
 other Mars missions
 which all studied the surface,
 InSight is the first mission
 to study the interior
 of the red planet.
  The basic idea of InSight
 is to map out the deep
 structure of March,
 we know a lot about
 the surface of Mars,
 we know a lot about
 its atmosphere,
  even about its ionosphere,
 but we don't know very much
about what goes on a
mile below the surface,
 much less 2000 miles below the
 surface down to the center,
  and this will be
  the first mission
  that is going to
  Mars specifically
 to investigate the
 deep inside of Mars.
 - We know that the
 Earth is habitable,
  we know that Mars is not,
there might be something
that we find out
  in terms of the
  structure of Mars
 versus the structure of Earth,
that maybe can help us
understand why that is.
  - InSight carries a
  seismometer which measures
  the seismic waves
  that have travel
 through Mars from Marsquakes,
 and maps out the deep
 interior structure of Mars,
we're gonna also
have a heat flow
 and physical properties probe,
 which will penetrate into the
 Mars surface about five meters
 or 16 feet to take the
 temperature on Mars.
  And it has a radio
  science experiment
 which uses the radio
 on the spacecraft
 to measure small variations
 in the wobble of Mars' poles
 to understand more
 about the structure
 and composition of the core.
  - InSight will be
  the first mission
to pick instruments off the deck
 of the Lander and place
 them on the surface of Mars.
  I like to say that
  we are playing
 the claw game on Mars
 with no joystick.
  The seismometer needs to
  be installed in one place
  and not move in order to
  get the best seismic data.
- [Bruce] We also have a
wind and thermal shield
 that we place on top
 of that seismometer
 to protect it further
 from the environment.
 - [Jaime] For the
 heat flow probe, HPQ,
  it also needs to
  sit in one place,
 take a while to hammer
 itself down into the ground
  and acquire the
  demo measurements
 over a long period of time.
- InSight is a mission to Mars,
but it's much, much more
than a Mars mission,
 in some sense it's
 like a time machine,
  it's measuring the
  structure of Mars
 that was put in place four
 and a half billion years ago,
so we can go back and
understand the processes
 that formed Mars just shortly
 after it was accreted
 from the solar nebula.
 By studying Mars we'll
 be able to learn more
about Earth, Venus,
Mercury, even the moon,
 even exoplanets
 around other stars.
 - Landing on Mars
 is always difficult,
 more than half the
 missions have failed,
  our experts in this field
 our systems engineers for
 entry, descent and landing,
they speak EDL.
Let me introduce you to
two in our control room,
  Christine Szalai,
  who will be making
 the mission callouts
 during landing,
 and Julie Wertz Chen,
 She is our color commentator
 who will help explain
 mission operations.
Christine let's start with you,
  I understand that
  there was a funnel
software update and adjustment,
 what does that mean?
- That's right,
  yesterday we sent the last
  EDL software parameter
 update to the
 spacecraft's computer,
 this update told the
 spacecraft exactly
 when it will hit the
 top of the atmosphere,
 and also fine tune things like
 when to deploy the parachute,
  this ADL software
  is very important,
  because InSight
  uses this software
 to perform entry, descent and
 landing completely on its own,
 Mars is so far away from Earth
 that when a command
 is sent from Earth
it takes about eight minutes
for it to reach the spacecraft,
  entry, descent and
  landing from start
 to finish is less than
 eight minutes long,
 so InSight has to do
 this all by itself.
- Alright, it's fate is sealed.
Now I understand
that the team is
 about to do a readiness poll,
  Julie can you fill
  us in on that?
  - Sure, so that's
  gonna be a poll,
between our EDL
communications engineer
  and several of the
  different orbiters
 and antennas we
 have here on Earth,
 so we have MarCO
 listening in on us,
and MRO, which is Mars
Reconnaissance Orbiter,
 will be listening to our
 data and recording it for us,
  and then the radio
  science engineers
 will be eavesdropping
 in on our signal
 from all the way
 back here on Earth,
and Sandy, our EDL
communications engineer
we'll be checking in with them,
 making sure that they
 are all ready to go,
 ready to support us
 in just a little under
an hour to land on Mars.
 - Alright so we're
 standing by for that,
for that readiness poll.
And I understand
that the peanuts
 are going to be passed
 in there pretty soon?
  - I believe that's
  the idea yeah,
 we'll be passing around the
 peanuts very soon after that,
for those of you who don't know,
the JPL peanuts are a tradition,
 it gives us a
 little bit of extra
 luck on our critical events,
 so if anybody out there
 wants to join in on peanuts
and give us some extra
good luck peanuts vibe,
 we'd love to have it.
  - Well there's a
  story behind that,
 that way back when in
 the early days of JPL
 there were several missions,
 and there were six
 Ranger missions to
 the moon that failed,
 but then with Ranger seven--
  - Ranger seven somebody--
 - [Gay] Somebody
 passed around peanuts.
 - Yeah, and it worked,
  and you don't mess
  with what works,
it's not a superstition,
it's a tradition,
 and we just give yourselves
 that little bit of extra luck.
- So if you have
peanuts at home,
  please have some.
- [Julie] That's right.
- Alright, thanks Julie.
  NASA has had seven
  successful Mars landings,
 but the EDL team never
 ever becomes overconfident,
 JPL chief engineer Rob Manning
  says things have
  to work just right
 during six and a half
 critical minutes.
[dramatic music]
- Although we've done it before,
landing on Mars is hard,
and this mission
is no different.
The process to get from the top
 of the atmosphere of
 Mars to this surface,
 we call entry,
 descent and landing,
or EDL,
  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.
 The process starts well above
 the top of the
 atmosphere of Mars,
the cruise stage faces the sun,
  it also has its radio
  antenna which faces Earth,
 but now we don't need
 the cruise stage,
its job is done.
The next step just seven minutes
  before arriving to the
  top of the Mars atmosphere
is to separate the cruise stage,
  before you hit the top
  of the atmosphere though,
 the space capsule
 has to orient itself
so that the heat shield is
precisely facing the atmosphere.
 Now the fun begins,
 the vehicle is moving at
 nearly 13,000 miles an hour,
 but it's hitting the
 top of the atmosphere
at a very shallow angle,
 12 degrees,
 any steeper,
 the vehicle will hit the
 thicker part of the atmosphere
 and will melt and burn out,
 any shallower,
 the vehicle will bounce
 off the atmosphere of Mars,
 at the very top the atmosphere
  it's about 70 miles above
  the surface of Mars,
  and the air is starting to
  get thicker and thicker,
as it does that,
  the temperature
  in the heat shield
 gets well over 1000
 degrees centigrade,
 enough to melt steel,
  over the next two minutes,
the vehicle decelerates
 at a backbreaking 12 Earth Gs,
 from 13,000 miles an hour
 to about 1000 miles an hour,
at about 10 miles above
the surface of Mars,
 a supersonic
 parachute is launched
out of the back of the vehicle,
 15 seconds after the
 parachute inflates,
 it's time to get rid
 of the heat shield,
six pyrotechnic devices
fire simultaneously
allowing the heat shield
to fall and tumble away
 from the vehicle exposing the
 lander to the surface of Mars.
10 seconds after the
heat shield is dropped,
 three pyrotechnically
 deployed legs
 are released and
 locked for landing.
 About a minute later, the
 landing RADAR is turned on,
 sending pulses toward
 the surface of Mars,
 as the vehicle starts
 to try to measure
  how high it is
  above the surface,
and how fast it's going.
 At about a mile above
 the surface of Mars,
 the lander falls away
 from the back shell
and lights its engines.
 And very quickly the vehicle
 must rotate out of the way,
 so that the parachute
 and the back shield doesn't
 come down to hit it,
 the last thing
 that has to happen,
is that in the moment of contact
 the engines have to
 shut down immediately,
 if they don't the
 vehicle will tip over.
 So with all the steps
 of entry, descent
 and landing happen perfectly
 and we are safely on
 the surface of Mars,
  we'll be ready to do some
  exciting new science.
  - Person later on
  in the program,
meantime let me
introduce you to someone
who has been working on
InSight for seven years,
 he's the project
 manager Tom Hoffman,
  seven years and
  today is the day.
 - That's right, seven years,
but we're just a little
over 40 minutes now
and we're gonna be on the
surface, it's gonna be awesome.
- Really exciting stuff.
 So let's talk about InSight,
 it's using tried
 and true technology,
 based on the Phoenix,
 this time there's a bigger
 challenge with communication,
 normally we have an orbiter
 that can give us bent
 pipe communications,
 but it's different this time.
 - That's right, most
 of the time when
 we've landed recently,
 we've had Mars Odyssey
 which can do bent
 pipe communications,
  and so we get real-time
  data as we go through EDL,
 and we've come to expect that
and actually we really,
really want that.
 In this case our
 primary technology,
primary orbiter is Mars
Reconnaissance Orbiter,
and so what that's gonna
be doing is actually
  will be listening
  to us on the UHF,
 if you go to the video
 you can see this,
 MRO will be listening to us
  and be getting all
  the primary data,
and it will send it back to us,
unfortunately only three
hours after we land.
 - So it doesn't give
 us the bent pipe
live information as it happens?
 - It doesn't,
 we have a couple of other
 sources that we're looking at,
 we have at Green Bay
 Observatory in West Virginia,
Max Planck Observatory
in Effelsberg, Germany,
 which will be giving us UHF,
but those only give us a couple
of different points in time,
and so we did something
kind of cool this time,
  we brought along a couple
  of Cubesats called MarCO,
  so hopefully they're
  both working great today.
 - [Gay] Oh, fantastic.
 - So we're hoping
 they're gonna continue
to work all the way through EDL,
and they will be giving
us real-time feed,
 so we can show how that
 works on the next video here.
 So you can see here's InSight
 with its cruise stage
 getting close to Mars,
 but we have two
 stalkers following us,
 they've been following
 us since we launched,
  they launched on the same
  launch vehicle as us,
 so you can see the green there
 is we're sending
 UHF signals to them,
 and then they turn
 that around and send
 a much stronger
 signal back to Earth,
 we can't communicate
 on UHF direct
  to Earth with this signal,
  that tells us what's going
  on in the spacecraft,
 but MarCO can,
  if it works for us all the
  way down to the surface
 we're gonna have some great
 information coming from MarCO.
- So MarCO is basically
trying to fill
that gap that we would have had
 if we had live communication
 coming down to us.
 - Absolutely.
 - So if it does not work does
 it affect InSight's
 mission at all?
- No not at all,
we'll just be doing a
little more nailbiting,
 but right now it looks
 like it's gonna be working,
 but it doesn't impact
 InSight at all,
 and we have one final
 way that we're gonna
 know that we've got
 successfully to the ground,
which is the spacecraft
will phone home,
once it gets down to the ground,
 it's gone seven
 months through cruise,
  seven and a half
  minutes of terror,
and it's gonna call back and say
 I'm on the surface I'm
 feeling pretty good,
 everything looks good so far.
- And also to prep the audience,
even after landing we're not out
of the woods just yet, correct?
- Not just yet,
 we have one more step
 that we have to do,
we have to let the dust
settle quite literally,
  we're gonna kick up a
  lot of dust when we land,
we need to let that dust settle,
  before we unfurl
  our solar arrays,
  we're 100% solar powered,
 so it's very important
 that we get those out,
 unfortunately,
 both MRO and MarCO
 will be out of view,
  by the time that we have
  those completely unfurled,
  and so we're gonna have to
  wait five and a half hours
until Odyssey comes by and tells
 us that yes indeed our
 solar arrays are out.
 So we'll definitely
 have a celebration
 when we get a
 successful landing,
 but we're gonna have to
 temper that just a little bit
 and wait about five
 and a half hours
  to know absolutely for
  sure we're in good shape.
 - So we have immediate
 knowledge if we have MarCOs,
 so just to run it
 through once again,
 what's gonna happen with EDL,
 we have the video of the show,
 how exactly is this
 all gonna play out
  in six and a half minutes,
  we can roll the video.
- Okay,
 you can see here we are
 attached to the cruise stage,
  we drop that off,
  say thank you for
  the ride to Mars,
 it burns up in the atmosphere,
you can see it gets very
hot on our heat shield,
we're getting up in some places
 maybe 3000 degrees Fahrenheit
 as we go through this,
we're on the heat shield
for about four minutes,
that dissipates about
90 percent of the energy
 that we need to dissipate
 before we get to the surface,
  then we pop our parachute,
 we're going about 850 miles
  an hour when we
  pop the parachute,
  we're on that for
  about two minutes,
 then we'll drop off
 the heat shield,
  we'll start acquiring the
  ground with our RADAR,
 very much like an F-16
 fighter jet RADAR,
 the legs will pop out,
we'll start descending,
  we drop for just a second
 which is very terrifying for
 me our descent thrusters,
 we have 12 of them,
 they are 16 pound thrusters,
  start thrusting and
  dropping us to the ground,
and slowly slowly we drop down,
 going only five miles an hour,
so when that six and a
half minutes of terror,
 which is a little less
 then seven minutes
so that's great for me,
we go from 12,300 miles
 an hour 75 miles above
 the surface of Mars,
 we get to the surface
 we're at five and a
 half miles an hour.
  - That's amazing,
  that's absolutely amazing,
well before you go Tom,
 there was a couple of pictures
 we wanted to show you,
 we have watch parties taking
 place all over the country,
and let's see if we can put one
  of these watch
  parties up for you
  to see this is from Ohio,
 this is a person who
 has a watch party,
 it looks like in a classroom.
 - [Tom] That is so awesome.
 - [Gay] Isn't that great that
 folks are watching with us?
 - Yeah I know,
people all across the
globe are watching this,
 and we really want to put a
 good show on for them today.
 - Alright I'll let
 you back in the room,
 - I gotta get back in there.
 - I know you're excited.
 Alright take care,
 thanks for joining us.
 - Thank you.
[dramatic music]
 - Okay let's introduce you to
 the people who built InSight,
 Lockheed Martin Space
 outside of Denver,
these are the folks who
built Viking in 1976,
  and Mars Phoenix in 2008,
 the operations team is there,
and Lockheed InSight EDL
manager Tim Linn is standing by,
 Tim, what's going on in there?
 - The team is getting
 really excited,
we are just about ready,
 we're about half
 an hour from entry,
and the start of entry,
descent and landing,
 so the team is really
 excited and focused,
 but also very excited
 about the upcoming
successful entry descent
  and landing we're
  getting close to.
 - We talked about
 the fact that InSight
 is based on tried
 and true technology,
 it's based on Phoenix,
 but you've had to make a
 couple of changes for InSight,
what were they?
 - Yeah, so obviously
 as you said,
 we leveraged Phoenix a lot,
there was a lot of great things
  that we were able to take
  from the Phoenix mission,
but InSight is a unique mission,
 it's landing towards
 the equator of Mars,
 and a number of
 things are different,
 where we're landing,
 we are about one and a half
 kilometers higher in altitude,
 in addition, so what
 that required us to do
 it's come in a little
 bit more shallow,
 in addition we are a little
 bit heavier than Phoenix was,
so we've had to increase
some of the strength
 of some of the lander itself,
  so the parachute, we had
  to increase the strength,
 we have to deploy the
 parachute a little bit higher
 because of some of
 the differences in
 our entry timeline,
 and because of
 when we're landing,
we're landing towards
the end of dust season,
so we've also actually increased
the thickness of
the heat shield,
 so we are about a quarter inch
 thicker on our heat shield
 to accommodate that potential
 sandblasting we could see
 when we actually do our
 entry, descent and landing.
 So a number of
 things we've changed,
  but we obviously leveraged
 a lot from the very successful
 Phoenix mission as well.
  - That's fantastic so you
  are able to customize it,
 because there were
 some concerns earlier
on that there was a
dust storm taking place,
  it was dust storm season.
- That's right,
 in fact we've had a
 lot of great support
  from our orbiting assets,
MRO and Odyssey,
 a couple of spacecraft
 that we've partnered
with JPL and were built
here at Lockheed Martin,
 they have actually provided
 a lot of great insight
  into the weather on Mars,
 the dust storms that are
 potentially happening on Mars,
and as of today,
 and actually the last couple
of weeks it's been great
on the surface of Mars,
 we are anticipating
 a very nominal,
very seasonal weather in
terms of both density,
  atmosphere as well
  as temperature,
 and dust storms appear
 to be very benign,
 so we're very
 optimistic it's gonna
  be a great day for landing
  on the surface of Mars.
 - Alright that's great news,
 thanks Tim,
 and I know your team
 is getting excited
  over there just
  as much as we are.
 Take care.
 - Absolutely, thanks a lot.
- The time now is 11:21,
 it's about 20 minutes,
the tension is building
in both control rooms,
 it's about 20 minutes before
 cruise stage separation,
 it's not too far off,
 cruise stage
 separation is expected
 at about 40 minutes
 past the hour,
so we are indeed getting close.
 So where is InSight
 going to Mars?
 It's a place called
 Elysium Planitia,
 Planitia is Latin for flat,
Elysium is ancient Greek
for afterlife paradise,
 it's located near the equator,
 north of Gale Crater,
not too far from
Curiosity Rover,
 the team calls it the
 biggest parking lot on Mars,
  it's a place that's safe,
 got plenty of sunshine that
 will power solar instruments
 to study the interior of Mars.
 [light music]
- [Narrator] What's inside Mars?
We know a lot about
what's inside the Earth,
 but at Mars we've only
 just scratched the surface,
to learn how Mars formed we
have to study its deep interior,
  NASA's InSight Lander was
  designed to do just that,
 by taking the
 planet's vital signs,
 listening to its pulse
 for seismic activity,
  including any Marsquakes,
 taking its temperature
 to see how much heat is
 flowing out from deep inside,
and checking its
reflexes to see how much
the planet wobbles as
it whips around the sun.
  These all provide clues to
 what the planet is
 really like inside.
 So what's inside Mars?
InSight can help us
find out by giving Mars
its first thorough checkup since
it formed four and a
half billion years ago,
  the more we learn,
the better we understand
all the rocky planets,
  and the history of
  our solar system.
  - Joining us now
  is Bruce Banerdt,
  the principal investigator
  of Mars InSight,
 InSight is a mission to Mars,
 but we keep hearing
 again and again
it's more than a
mission to Mars.
 - That's right Gay,
 I mean we are going to Mars
 to study the Martian interior
 and to map out the
 divisions inside Mars,
  but we want to use
  that information
 to understand more
 about the solar system
 as a whole and how
 rocky planets form.
 - And rocky planets,
we have an image to show folks,
 so we're talking about
 Earth, the Moon, Mars.
 - Mercury, Venus, the planets
 of the inner solar system
 that are made mostly of rocks,
 and they all share the
 same basic structure
with a dense iron core,
a rocky mantle,
and then a crust of
lighter silicate rocks,
 but the very details of the
 thicknesses of those layers,
the sizes and the compositions,
 give us a lot of clues as
 to how those planets formed,
 and why they went down
 very different paths
 into the different
 planets we see today.
 - So explain to me,
 we are going to have a lander,
you're gonna be on the surface,
 how will you be able
 to study the interior?
- We use what are called
geophysical instruments,
 they use the
 principles of physics
  to actually see
  through the rocks,
 we are using seismic waves,
 the same way you
 might use a flashbulb
 to take pictures of something,
we are using Marsquakes,
  which send out vibrational
  waves through the planet,
 and as they go through
the planet they
reflect off boundaries,
 they get bent,
 they change their velocity,
 and it changes the wiggles
 that you see on a seismograph,
 when we go through the planet
 you can see that here it
 hits the various boundaries,
 and those waves are reflected,
sometimes they're bent,
 it becomes a pretty
 complicated pattern,
 but scientifically
 we have learned over
  the last hundred years
  how to interpret the code
  of the signals that comes
  back up to the surface,
in the seismometers
that pick up that signal
  and then turn it into data
  that we can use on Earth,
 to understand what the 3D
 structure is of the planet.
 - So normally you use
 three seismometers,
 in this case you're
 bringing size,
 that's one,
 how are you going to be able
 to get that
 information using one?
 - Well we had to
 get kind of clever,
 because all the Earth usually
you have plenty of seismometers,
 you can use multiple
 seismometers
to triangulate in on
where the Earthquake is,
on Mars we're gonna do something
a little bit different,
we're gonna use not only
the P and the S waves
 that you may have heard about,
  but we are using
  the surface waves,
 and here you can see
 the surface waves
 moving out from a Marsquake,
 and as it passes over
 the InSight Lander
 you can see the seismograph
 up there in the upper
 left-hand corner
 where you have the wiggles,
now those waves keep on
going around the planet,
and because Mars
is not so large,
 they still have a fair
 amount of amplitude,
 they haven't gotten
 completely damped out,
  by the time it's gone all
  the way around the planet,
  passes over the
  spacecraft again,
and finally even the way
they went the other way
 around the planet comes across
 and hits us yet a third time,
and so we have extra information
  over the P and the S wave,
 we have these
 surface wave arrivals
that we can use to pinpoint
the distance from the Marsquake
 to our lander,
 and then we use something
 called polarization analysis,
 to figure out which direction
 the waves are coming from,
  and by doing that,
we can do the same thing
  that we can do with three
  stations on the Earth,
just using the P
and the S waves.
 - And very quickly, there
 is still another instrument
 built by DLR that's also
 being carried up by InSight,
 can you talk a little
 bit about that?
  - Yeah that's our
  heat flow probe,
  and it's a pretty
  cool instrument
 that uses a mechanical
 mole we call it,
 to burrow its way
 down into the surface,
 it has a motor that
 winds up a hammer
 and knocks itself down just
 a few millimeters at a time,
 but we do that 20 or
 30,000 hammer strokes
 and it gets it down,
we hope to get down to be about
16 feet below the surface,
 and once we get down there,
 we're actually measuring the
 heat coming out of the planet,
  by measuring the
  temperature along
 the cable as it comes
 up to the surface,
and looking at how
that temperature
increases as we go down,
 and extrapolate that
 deep into the planet
 to understand how much energy
 there is inside the planet
 to drive the geology and to
 drive volcanism, Marsquakes,
 all kinds of activity.
 - It's amazing how
 much you'll be able
  to learn from the surface
  about the interior.
- I think it is amazing,
 it's been something that I've
  been working on for my
  whole professional career,
  and I find it fascinating.
- Alright we'll talk about that,
 thanks Bruce.
Bruce first thought of the
mission like this as he mentions
40 years ago when he
was a graduate student,
 the rest of the team hasn't
 waited quite that long,
 but this is a big
 moment for them too,
  recently we sat down
  with a few of the members
 and asked them what
 is it going to be like
 as we get close to landing.
[dramatic music]
 - It's a very
 difficult thing to do,
  and everything has
  to go perfectly,
 as humans we've sent
 17 different missions
  to the surface of Mars and
  10 of them have crashed.
  Before we can land on Mars
  we have to get to Mars.
 How do we get to Mars?
  - The main responsibility
  of the navigation team
is to ensure that the
spacecraft is delivered
to the right point on
the Martian atmosphere.
 The target location is
 about 12 kilometers in size,
 our accuracy is
 comparable to shooting
a basketball from Staple
Center in downtown LA,
 and hitting nothing but net
 in a basketball hoop
 in New York City,
  that is moving at a speed
of about two feet per second
and is spinning about its axis.
 - The landing site we have an
 ellipse that is pretty big,
  it's about 60 miles long,
 We could land anywhere
 in that ellipse,
 there's a chance that we
 could land right on a rock,
 and we don't have any
 control over that,
so that's what makes me nervous.
 - We have tested the RADAR
 by flying it on a helicopter,
 we've tested pieces
 of the heat shield
 by putting them in
 an arc jet facility,
we have tested the parachute
by testing it in a wind tunnel,
 and putting that all together
 in a very tightly
 controlled sequence
 where every single
 thing has to go right,
  we have never tested that,
  and the first time
  it's gonna happen
is once you deliver us to Mars.
- It is about 11:29 AM Pacific,
and you're watching live
coverage of the InSight landing
 from NASA's Jet
 Propulsion Laboratory
in Pasadena, California.
We are about a half
hour away from landing,
and people all over
the world are watching,
 take a look at a map
 that we have for you,
  we can show you right now,
 this is a watch in person map
 where people have watch
 parties all over the world,
 all over the United States,
 in Paris, in Berlin,
  even off the coast
  of Madagascar,
 and folks in the Big Apple
 will also be watching today,
 the NASDAQ Tower will switch
 over to landing coverage
  for about an hour,
  that means people in Times
  Square can watch too,
and later today, NASA will have
 the honor of ringing
 the closing bell,
  and that will be a little
  over an hour from now.
And if you are watching,
  take a picture
  and send it to us,
  using hashtag Marslanding,
 here is one I believe it is
 from the California Science
 Center in Los Angeles,
 and I am told Eric Garcetti
 will be visiting later today.
Things are getting more
active for the team now,
 let's check back in
 with Julie Wertz Chen
 in the control room,
 what's going on Julie?
 - Yeah so we have heard
 from MRO a couple of times,
that's Mars
Reconnaissance Orbiter,
  they are doing their slew,
 they are ready to support us,
 they are doing great,
and we heard from both MarCO's,
  MarCO A and B that
  they're out there,
  they've got telemetry lock
 with them from the
 ground stations here,
so they are doing great,
 and everybody is ready to
 go, so we're pretty excited.
 - Fantastic,
we will check back in
with Julie in a moment,
 meantime this is a good time
 to tell you a little bit more
about that technology experiment
we've been talking about,
 MarCO,
as we mentioned earlier,
InSight does not have an orbiter
 in position to send
 EDL data back live,
 so the Cubesats hope
 to fill that gap,
here's how they'll work.
- [Narrator] Communicating
between Mars and Earth requires
 a complicated choreography,
 with everything in the right
 place at the right time.
Sometimes hours can
pass before information
 is related from one
 planet to another,
 that's why when NASA's Mars
 InSight Lander launches
this year the rocket will carry
 two tiny satellites for a
 technology test of their own.
 Meet Mars Cube One,
 MarCO, NASA's first Cubesat
 mission to deep space,
these briefcase-sized satellites
will travel separately
from the InSight Lander
  while they test out new
  miniaturized technologies,
 and if they make it to Mars
  they could relate
  information back
to Earth about InSight's
descent and touchdown,
  and do it in mere minutes.
 Although this fast
 communication isn't crucial
 to the success of
 the InSight Lander,
 this Cubesat test could change
 the way future
 spacecraft phone home.
 - Alright let's
 check back with Julie
 to see if the MarCOs
 are indeed ready
 to support and
 listen for InSight,
Julie what do you know?
  - So they are ready to go,
  I haven't heard about
  their slew coming up yet,
  but they are ready to go,
we have heard from them,
they are both healthy,
 and they're both doing great,
 which is just wonderful news.
 So I think they should
 be doing a slew,
 actually I think they should
  be doing a slew
  in just a minute.
 - [Gay] We'll stand
 by and listen then.
 [men mumbling off-microphone]
 - [Woman] All
 stations and systems,
 we can confirm we are
 entry -20 minutes,
EDL nav two has been initiated,
 the star tracker has
 been powered off.
 - The nav two software
 has been initiated,
so when we're in cruise
we use a star tracker,
 in a similar manner to how
 sailors navigated years ago,
 we look at the stars
 and get our relative
 position from them,
we use a star tracker for that,
 and now that we are
 close enough to Mars,
 we don't need that anymore,
  so we're gonna transition
  to what's called
  Nav two software,
 and that let's us
 basically just use velocity
 and acceleration
 from this point on,
 so we don't need the
 star tracker any more.
 - [Man] MarCO clarify, slew to
 inertia or start a bent pipe.
 - [Man] Slew to appropriate
 altitude for bent pipe,
 bent pipe mode will
 be entered shortly.
  - [Man] Okay thank
  you very much.
- And that was obviously
confirmation of
the slew for MarCO,
 so that's great news.
  - [Gay] Fantastic.
 - So as I was saying before,
 the Nav two software will
 propagate from here on out,
 and we'll use velocity
 and acceleration,
 so we've powered off
 our star tracker,
  and we are on our
  Nav two software
and everything is looking great.
 - Okay thanks Julie.
  Alright the cruise
  stage separation
is just about four minutes away,
 and Rob Manning joins us now,
 Rob is the chief
 engineer here at JPL,
and an absolute veteran
of Mars landings.
 We are going to play a little
 video for you right now,
you haven't seen it yet,
  but we'll roll it.
Let's go ahead.
  This is--
  - [Man] Lander
  acceleration live,
 14 reports carrier lock at--
- [Gay] There you are,
you were the phase lead.
  You were sitting
  up from [laughs].
 [crowd cheers]
 - [Rob] Yeah,
that's what I look like
when it's successful.
 - [Gay] Yes.
  - I'd hate to see
  what I would have
  looked like if I
  wasn't successful.
 - But talk about that,
  what is EDL like,
  why is it so hard?
- Well its many years of
work by many many people
who struggle to put all
the pieces together,
and particularly because
we can't really test
entry, descent and
landing on this planet,
 it's much more complicated,
 Mars has a lower atmosphere,
 thinner atmosphere,
 less gravity,
 you just can't put the pieces,
so imagine you had a
big Broadway production,
but you couldn't really
 do the show until all
 the audience shows up,
 so that's what it feels like,
 so you never really know if
 you've really done it right.
  - Well we've done
  it seven times,
  can we say piece of cake,
  we know what we're doing?
 - No I don't think so,
 we get better at it,
 and there's no doubt
 we have learned,
we've learned from both
successes and our own failures,
 including failures of other
missions outside
of this country,
  so those pieces come
  together in our minds eye,
 and we try to put what
 we learned together,
 and just do the best we can,
and if we don't succeed,
 we will learn,
  because we are collecting
  data on the way down,
if something bad happens today,
 we'll be able to
 take what we learned,
  even though we may
  fall on the ground
after being kicked off the horse
 we'll get back up,
 brush ourselves off,
 figure out what we did wrong,
  and get back on the horse.
 - Well there's a
 lot of uncertainty,
just very quickly give
some possible scenarios
 of what could happen
 during EDL today,
  especially during
  communications?
 - Well the great news about
 having communications,
almost anything could go wrong,
  there's a very good chance
  we can figure it out,
  but things like the
  parachute has to go right,
  you don't open parachutes
 on Earth going Mach
 one and a half,
 one and a half times
 the speed of sound,
you just don't do that,
  you don't need to
  on this planet,
 but we have to
 because if we waited
  any longer we'd
  be on the ground.
A very complicated
RADAR system has to work
 from outer space all the way
 to the ground and
 look for the ground,
 what if it locked up
 on the heat shield,
 well we've tried to
 avoid that problem,
 we fixed that problem we think
to prevent that from happening,
 but what if we got it wrong,
 things like that can happen,
and our vehicle could
have things bad happen,
 but we have worked
 hard to prevent them.
  - So we're getting close,
 we're gonna go to the control
 room for cruise
 stage separation Rob.
- Okay.
 I need to take off.
  Yes, yes.
  - [Man] InSight
  systems, EDL COMM.
 - [Woman] Go-ahead?
- [Man] At this time MRO
 will have loaded their
 electro sequences,
 and MarCO is expecting
 carrier lock any time,
 MarCO B has recorded
 they're in bent pipe,
 still waiting on A.
- [Woman] Copy that, thank you.
 - [Man] Radio Science report,
 UHF carrier detected.
 - [Man] EDL COMM, MarCO
 Alpha is an bent pipe mode,
 MarCO bravo has
 locked on the carrier.
 MarCO Alpha has also
 locked on carrier.
[people applaud]
 - [Man] Systems based
 on InSight court,
 as expected the DSN
 has LS inside x-band.
- Copy that, thank you.
All station InSight
systems on InSight core,
DSN has lost the X-band
signal from InSight,
indicated at expected
cruise stage separation.
 Standing by for UHF
 signal acquisition
via MarCO radio science.
 We are about five
 minutes from entry,
 and have confirmation
 we have lost
the X-band signal from InSight,
  this was expected because
  we have transitioned
 from the antenna
 on the cruise stage
 to the UHF antenna
 aboard the spacecraft.
 Ground stations have
 detected UHF signal
 and MarCO has locked
 on the signal,
  this confirms that InSight
 is transmitting UHF
 signals as expected.
InSight telemetry
through the MarCO relay
  is not expected till about
  two minutes before entry.
- [Gay] So Rob that was exactly
what we were hoping here,
 that the MarCOs are--
- The vehicle has also performed
the turn to entry maneuver,
the vehicle is turning away
from the sun pointing altitude,
 and oriented itself to enter
 the Martian atmosphere.
 - This is a big first step,
just getting the
cruise stage separated,
 After the vehicle turns itself
 to the right orientation,
The cruise stage is now
going to get further
 and further away
 till it's about three
or four football fields
away and will burn
 up in parallel as the
 vehicle enters Mars.
- And Christine
mentioned turn to entry,
 what does that mean?
 - Well it's because
 the cruise stage
 has to be pushed off
 to one side like this,
 the rest of the vehicle has to
 turn to face the atmosphere,
and to be dead nuts on as it
hits the top of the atmosphere.
 - [Gay] So this is
 taking all the heat
 coming into the atmosphere?
  - Exactly,
  it'll both provide
  a source for drag,
 but also thermal protection,
 because it gets over
 1500 degrees Celsius
 on this heat shield,
very, very hot,
 but on the inside
 of the heat shield,
 it's maybe only a few degrees
 above room temperature,
 so it's a wonderful
 protector device
to keep our lander safe.
 - Alright so the next thing
 were standing by for is,
 - Is entry.
 - Entry.
 - Getting to the top
 of the atmosphere
 and gradually slowing down,
 Right now the vehicle
 is just now beginning,
  very soon will be
  beginning to feel
 the atmosphere touching it,
actually entry is above
the atmosphere slightly,
so it's really not till
half a minute or so
 after entry before we really
 start detecting the fact
 that that atmosphere
 is slowing us down.
- Alright, we'll be standing by.
- Yes, exciting.
- [Gay] Rob, now entry
is scheduled for 11:47,
 the cruise stage set
 and the entry times
 are locked in correct?
  - [Rob] They are,
they are locked in when
we selected the target
 and aimed the vehicle
 very precisely,
 that allows us to know exactly
 when we hit the entry point,
 which is 35 to 55 kilometers
 from the center of Mars.
- [Gay] So we know those
times are locked in,
 but what about all the other
 events that take place--
 - [Man] Radio Science
 reports dropping
  carrier power as expected.
- [Man] MarCO A and
MarCO B have telemetry.
[people applaud]
- [Gay] Just heard, both
MarCO's have telemetry.
- [Rob] They are
doing their job,
these small Cubesats are
relaying ones and zeros
 with a few seconds lag From
 the vehicle up to
 these two vehicles,
  and they forward
  them back to Earth
  to the deep space network
  using X-band antennas,
- And keep in mind this
was all an experiment,
we weren't sure that
this was going to work,
 but we had this
 need that we didn't
  have live communication in
  this particular mission.
 - Well we don't really
 need communications,
we don't need their information,
except if something went wrong,
  we would very much like
  to get the data right now,
  we have other spacecraft.
 - [Christine] We are
 now receiving InSight
telemetry via the MarCO really.
[people applaud]
  - Ah, it's flowing
  into it, fabulous.
  That means the
  team now can watch
 the data flowing onto
 their screens as if
  they're communicating
  directly with the vehicle.
- This data will provide
detailed information
  about the state of the
  spacecraft throughout EDL.
 - [Gay] We were on pins and
 needles waiting for that,
because we weren't really sure.
- [Rob] This is wonderful news,
 if this continues
 working all the way
  to the ground and beyond,
 we might even see a
 first picture from
 the surface of Mars.
- [Gay] Wouldn't that be great?
  - [Rob] Very soon.
  - [Christine] Atmospheric
  entry on my mark,
 three, two, one, mark.
 - [Gay] Here we go.
 - [Rob] So in a few seconds
the vehicle will start
sensing the atmosphere,
 22 kilometers from
 the center of Mars,
 and it's gonna start
 to slow down very
 very slowly at first,
 but then faster and
 faster and faster,
till it reaches about seven Gs,
 I made that mistake
 on the video,
 it's actually seven Gs not 12,
but it will still very,
very quickly slow down,
  from 15--
 - In approximately one minute,
 InSight is expected to reach
 its maximum heating rate,
 plasma blackout is possible
 during peak heating,
 and could cause a temporary
 drop out of telemetry,
 this could last for as
 long as two minutes.
  - [Rob] The gas that comes
 off the heat shield
 as it's slowing down,
 it looks like a meteor
 if you're on Mars
  watching the streak go by,
  that brightness of
  gas does interfere
  with the radio reception,
 so it's possible
 that MarCO will lose
 that signal while going
 through this very hot entry.
 - [Gay] But not to be alarmed.
  - [Rob] Not to be alarmed,
it's part of the design,
we completely expect it.
 - [Man] Radio science reports
 plasma blackouts as expected.
 - [Rob] Okay, oh wow.
  - Ground stations have
  reported plasma blackout,
still receiving InSight
telemetry via MarCO.
- [Man] MarCO Alpha has
carrier interruption.
 - InSight should now
 be experiencing the
 peak heating rate,
 portions of the heat
 shield may reach
  nearly 3000 degrees
  Fahrenheit as it protects
 the lander from the
 heating environment.
 - [Rob] That's hot.
- [Man] MarCO Bravo has
carrier interruption,
  but still in lock.
  - InSight has passed
  through peak deceleration,
  telemetry shows the
  spacecraft at about 8 Gs.
  - [Man] MarCO Alpha and
  MarCO Bravo maintain lock.
  - [Man] Radio science
  reports carrier detected.
  - [Gay] Several different
  communications coming in.
- InSight is now
traveling at a velocity
  of 2000 meters per second.
  - [Rob] It seems to have
  passed this very critical
 point of peak heating
 and peak deceleration.
 The next big step is
 parachute inflation.
 - [Gay] You can see
 that on our timeline
 on the bottom of the screen,
  the next event is
  parachute deploy.
  - InSight is now traveling
  at 1000 meters per second.
 Once InSight slows to
 about 400 meters per second
 it will deploy its 12 meter
 diameter supersonic parachute,
 the parachute will deploy
 nominally at about Mach 1.7.
  Standing by for
  parachute deploy.
 - [Man] Radio science reports
 sudden change in Doppler.
 - [Christine] Ground stations
 are observing signals
  consistent with
  parachute deploy.
[people applaud]
 - [Man] MarCO Alpha
 and MarCO Bravo
maintain locked status.
 - [Christine] Telemetry
 shows parachute deployment,
  RADAR powered on.
[people applaud]
 Heat shield
 separation commanded.
 - [Rob] This is really
 good news so far.
- [Gay] It's fantastic.
- [Rob] I'm on pins and needles.
  - We have RADAR activation
 where the RADAR is beginning
 to search for the ground,
 once the RADAR
 locks on the ground,
 and InSight is about one
 kilometer above the surface,
the lander will separate
from the back shell
 and begin terminal descent
 using its 12 descent engines.
Altitude convergence, the
RADAR has locked on the ground.
[people applaud]
 Standing by for the
 lander separation.
 - [Man] Carrier interruption
on MarCO Alpha and MarCO Bravo.
 - [Christine] Lander
 separation commanded,
 altitude 600 meters.
 Gravity turn,
 altitude 400 meters.
 - [Rob] We're getting there.
 - 300 meters.
 200 meters.
  80 meters.
  60 meters.
 50 meters, constant velocity,
  37 meters,
  30 meters,
  20 meters,
  17 meters,
  standing by for touchdown.
 Touchdown confirmed.
  [people cheer and applaud]
  - [Gay] That's fantastic.
 - [Rob] This never gets old.
  - [Gay] No it doesn't Rob,
 the control room just erupted.
 - [Rob] Fabulous, fabulous.
 - [Gay] Command of
 the MarCO team there.
  - [Rob] The MarCO
  team did great,
  Ted Reising, one of the
  key designers of Lockheed.
 Sandy Krasner,
 they are a great team.
This is really fabulous.
- [Gay] Fantastic news.
 - [Rob] [laughs] Thank you.
  - [Gay] Lots of fist
  pumping going on in there.
 What a relief,
 we have cut over to the
 camera over in Times Square,
 people are weathering
 the rain to see this.
  [people cheering]
 - [Rob] They can't help it.
  This is the hardest part,
 getting to the
 surface and landing,
 this thing has a lot
 more to do though,
 there's a lot more
 to go on both today
 and the days that follow
 before the science can begin,
  but just getting a
  vehicle from Earth
 to the surface of
 Mars is no mean feat.
 - [Gay] And Rob, could
 you talk about that,
 just the mere accomplishment
 here that we're seeing.
  - You have to understand,
  this vehicle is
  very complicated,
 it uses 12 engines,
  each of those engines are
  pulsed 10 times a second,
 producing these
 little tiny impulses,
  almost like little
  bullets that keep
 the vehicle going at
 a constant velocity
 as it approaches the ground,
 and still going over
 five miles an hour,
 so those legs feel a
 fair amount of crush,
 we still don't know the state
 of the vehicle right now,
 we need to look to make sure
 there are no rocks nearby,
 the solar panels in about five
  to 10 minutes will
  begin to open up,
 they're waiting for
 the dust to settle,
  because there is certainly
  a lot of dust being lifted
 in the air around the
 vehicle right now,
 which is now just settling.
 - [Gay] So we're standing by,
  after touchdown
  it waits a couple
  of minutes to give
  us an X-band beep,
so we are standing by for that,
 it's a communication
 that comes directly
 to Earth from InSight.
 - [Rob] Yes,
 and it goes to the
 Deep Space Network,
 there's also something that
 might be happening now,
 if we are very lucky,
 InSight might be able
 to relay an image
 or a partial image taken just
 a couple of minutes
 after landing,
 so I'm standing by
 hoping to see that,
 but if that doesn't happen,
we'll certainly get more images
later in our Odyssey pass
 in about five hours.
- [Gay] We see Bruce
Banerdt waiting for it,
I don't know if they see it yet.
  - [Rob] They are waiting,
 that's Justin Mackie
 and Bruce Banerdt
looking carefully at the cameras
to see what they might see.
They're waiting for
the image to come back.
 - [Gay] So this is the first
 image from InSight itself,
 InSight is taking a picture
 with one of its two cameras,
 it's probably a view
 of what is directly
 in front of the spacecraft,
 right in front of the lander,
 this is a camera that it
 will be using to figure out
 is this a good space,
  is it a good place to
  put down our instruments,
so it is going to take an image
 and then send that
 image to the MarCOs,
the MarCOs in turn will
relay it back to Earth.
 - [Rob] That's
 great, they got it.
  [people cheer and applaud]
 This is great, let's
 see what they've got.
 There it is.
 - [Gay] There's the picture.
 - [Rob] That's a good site,
  that's not far from where
they'll be able to
deploy the instruments,
 so it's great,
 I don't see a lot of--
 - [Gay] Let's
 explain that image,
now this image has a
dust cover on top of it.
 - [Man] EDL COMM, we have
 lost the signal from MarCO.
 - [Rob] You can see
 potentially a lot of--
 - [Man] Radio signs
 reports loss for UHF.
- [Rob] So we don't know
what I'm looking at.
 - Thank you everybody
 on EDL COMM.
  - [Man] Trusty job MarCO.
 - [Rob] Yay, MarCO.
[people applaud]
Congratulations.
But there it is,
  you can see a better view,
  you can see that
  really is debris,
there is the horizon back there,
the bluish sky,
  that's part of the lander
  deck on the front left,
  I can't make out,
  but it looks like
  there's not a lot
 of rocks in the field of view,
 but those dots you see
 there are very likely
 to be dust particles
 on the dust cover,
 which will be removed.
 - [Gay] And will get
 another shot later on.
 - [Rob] Yes.
And a better clearer view after
the dust cover is removed,
 Cubesats relay
 communications job is done,
 they're now flying on,
  they're now taking
  pictures back toward Mars,
 hopefully MRO
 which flew overhead
 might have been lucky enough
 to capture the descent
 of this InSight Lander
 under its parachute,
while this was going on,
MRO was flying overhead
recording the data,
 and also monitoring
 the transactions,
and recording every
bit of signal it could,
  but it also had the
  ability to take a picture,
 maybe like we did with Phoenix
 and later for Curiosity Rover,
we might be able to see
the parachute inflated.
- [Gay] That would be fantastic,
 we are standing by now
 for that X-band beep,
 InSight phoning home saying
 I'm here, and I'm okay.
  [crowd murmuring]
- [Man] Systems on InSight core,
 the DSM and X-band.
 - [Man] Radio science reports
 X-band carrier detected.
  [people cheer and applaud]
 [man mumbles off microphone]
- [Man] Four and a half minutes
 with InSight in nominal mode.
- [Woman] Copy that, thank you.
  - [Rob] Flawless,
- [Gay] Perfect,
  - [Rob] Flawless,
 - [Gay] We've got the beep,
this was a perfect case
scenario in my book.
 - [Rob] This is
 what we really hoped
 and imagined in our minds eye,
  we spent a lot of
  time visualizing
all these bad things can happen,
but sometimes things
work out in your favor.
 And we'll look very
 carefully at the data
  and see how well it went,
  but it certainly
  looked like it was
 a very successful
 and perfect landing,
 we'll have to see as we get
 more data how well things go,
 as the vehicle proceeds the
 solar panels will be deployed,
 hopefully were not on a tilt,
 it doesn't look like
 we are from the image,
 but the solar panels will
 be deployed safely we hope,
 and we'll get
 confirmation of that
 around five o'clock local time
 here in about four and a
 half to five hours from now.
 - [Gay] And this is
 such a difficult feat,
 in that because of
 the one-way lag time,
 there is no way that
 any of these engineers
 could possibly
 control the vehicle,
it all has to be done in
commands and software.
 - [Rob] Yes,
we have to train it to
do this work on its own.
- [Man] Radio science
reports nominal carrier
 30 seconds past the
 first acquisition,
  so we are nominal
  on the surface.
 - [Rob] So the vehicle
 is completely nominal,
  reported nominal,
 it's happy,
 the lander is not complaining,
 we had a way to tell
 us if it was unhappy,
 and it wasn't,
  it's not unhappy,
 it's in normal mode,
 and so it's gonna chug
 along for the rest
  of the afternoon on Mars
  and finish the activities.
- [Gay] Alright well Rob
I know you're anxious
 to get in and
 congratulate the crew,
 thank you so much for sitting
 here and helping us out.
 - It was my pleasure.
 - And explaining EDL.
 - Thank you.
- Alright, well I'll let you go,
 and go congratulate
 your friend's.
 - Thank you.
 - Alright, take care.
 - [Man] EDL COMM on
 InSight ops recording
 completed at 20:04:34.
  - Alright,
 as we had promised we said we
 bring back the administrator
 to get your take
 on what was it like
 to be in that control room,
 Jim, what was it like?
 - Well I'll tell you,
it was intense,
and you could feel the emotion,
 it was very, very quiet when
 it was time to be quiet,
 and of course very
 celebratory with every little
new piece of information
that was received,
 it's very different being here
 than watching it on TV by far,
I can tell you that for sure
now that I've experienced both,
 and then of course,
 what's amazing is as
 soon as it was over,
 I got a call on my cell phone,
 and the phone number
 with all zeros,
  and whenever I get a phone
  call that's all zeros
 it's got to be
 somebody important,
 I answered it,
 and it was the vice president,
 he watched the whole thing,
  he is absolutely ecstatic
  about our program,
  as you are aware,
  he's the chairman
 of the National Space Council,
 and he's been of course a
 keen advocate for what we do,
 and to have him call within
 seconds of mission success,
 is tremendous,
 and just so everybody knows,
  he wants me to say
  congratulations
  to everybody here at NASA,
and all of our
international partners,
 and everybody who has
 contributed to this mission,
 what an amazing day for NASA.
  - It is an amazing
  accomplishment,
  in that this is something
  that is happening millions
and millions and
millions of miles away,
  and these people
  are able to do it.
 - Incredible,
  and what's fascinating is,
  the whole time I'm
  watching it I'm thinking,
 every milestone is something
that happened eight minutes ago,
  because that's
  the timelag to get
 a signal from Mars to Earth,
  so it's exciting,
 but then you have to
 step back and realize
 that this has already
 occurred in history,
 so it's an unique experience,
 incredible, just the
 enthusiasm here is incredible.
 - So what's for the future,
 looking ahead, 2020?
  - Well let's get
  through December,
so for the rest,
 we think about happening next,
 December 3rd, we're lunching
 another American astronaut
 to the International
 Space Station,
  so that's gonna be
  a big achievement,
 and it's gonna be on a
 Russian Soyuz rocket,
 the last time we launched
 a human was not successful.
- [Gay] That was scary.
- It was scary,
 but we figured out
 what the problem is,
 we're moving forward,
  and now we've got that
  underway on December 3rd.
  Going forward from there,
we're gonna get the
first science data back
 from the Parker Solar
 Probe on December 7th,
  so that's not too
  far away either,
 and then we've got Osiris Rex,
 that will be in orbit around
 Benu shortly after Christmas,
  so no shortage of
  exciting things.
And then on January 1st,
 we're gonna to fly the
 New Horizons mission,
  which for people
  who are not aware,
 that's the mission that
 went to Pluto back in 2014,
 give us stunning images and
 data and science on Pluto,
 and now that mission
 is still going strong,
 it's in what we call
 the Kuiper Belt now,
which is an asteroid
belt well beyond Pluto,
and it's gonna be taking
images of Ultima Thule,
  which is an object
  in the Khyber belt
which we have never been
able to go out there
 and take images of anything
 at close range before,
and now we're doing it,
  so you ask what's
  happening next.
 - I'm sorry I asked.
 - We have right now at NASA,
there is more underway,
  probably than I don't
  know how many years past,
but it's like there's a drought,
and then all of a sudden there's
all of these
activities all at once,
 so we're busy,
 we're gonna be working
 through the holiday,
but a lot of amazing
discoveries to be made,
and we're looking forward to it.
- It's so funny,
 because our ask NASA question
 you basically answered,
 is does the success of
 NASA InSight influence
 the timeline for future
 manned lunar or Mars missions?
 - Well certainly everything
 we learn about Mars
 at this point is gonna
 help us understand
 how to do in situ
 resource utilization,
so InSight could
actually provide
  some really good
  information about whether
 or not there is
 liquid water on Mars,
and maybe even where it
is and how to get to it,
we strongly believe that
there's liquid water
 10 kilometers under
 the surface of Mars,
 so the key is,
  the answer is yes,
  the more we learn the more
  we're able to achieve,
 so to get to Mars yes.
But the lunar missions,
the president's space
first policy directive,
 is to go to the moon,
  to go sustainably
  with international
and commercial partners,
 so when we say sustainably,
 that means we're
 gonna have reusability
 built into the system,
 and we're gonna test and prove
 technologies at the moon,
 which ultimately we
 can replicate at Mars,
 so we're gonna retire at risk,
 prove human physiology
 at the moon,
  which is only a
  three day journey,
 which means if
 something goes wrong,
you can get home safely,
 we saw that with Apollo 13,
but we need to use the
moon as a proving ground
to accelerate our path to Mars,
in the meantime,
 we're doing missions
 like InSight
 to learn as much about
 Mars as possible,
InSight is gonna help us
 understand asteroid
 impacts as well,
because it's got a seismometer,
 which is gonna help us know
  how often is Mars getting
  impacted with asteroids,
  and if we're gonna
  send humans there,
 it would be important to know,
 if those humans are gonna
 experience asteroid impacts.
 - And that's pretty
 much our goal,
  is always learned
  from our missions
 and build upon those missions.
 - One after another,
and NASA has a long
history of doing amazing
 work in building on
 its past successes,
 and in fact its past failures.
 - That's true.
- I'll tell you,
 what an amazing time
 to be at the helm
 of this extraordinary agency.
 - Well we are so glad that you
 are here to share it with us,
 thanks for joining us.
 - Well Gay, it's
 been a true pleasure.
 - And I'm sure you
 need to go in there
and celebrate with those folks,
 but thank you for
 stepping out for us.
- Absolutely, thank you so much.
 - Alright, take care.
 Now Mars exploration
 is cool stuff,
 but if you're not
 convinced just yet,
  just talk to the InSight
  scientists and engineers,
  no one conveys the
  excitement more
 than the people who actually
 work on the mission,
 so earlier this year the
 outreach team filled up a van
 and went to 15
 Californian cities,
  they called it the
  InSight Roadshow.
 [upbeat music]
- So we are here in San
Francisco at the Exploratorium,
 and this is part of
 InSight's roadshow,
since it's the first
inter-planetary mission
 we've ever launched
 from California,
 we're actually doing a lot of
 public engagement activities
  along California.
 - We're just talking
 to the public,
 and talking to them
 about InSight and
 getting them excited,
and sharing information
that they probably
  wouldn't get just
  from the website.
 - We have Mars globes
 and technical kits,
we have replicas of the
actual launch vehicle
 that's gonna be taking
 InSight to Mars,
we have a selfie
station with fun props,
  people can take pictures.
  Children really,
  really like Mars.
  - We have a jump station,
 where we invite kids
 to come in and jump,
  we have a little
  seismometer on the floor,
 which measures ground motion,
so if students can come
and jump next to it,
 they can actually see their
 own recording on the screen,
  and they can make
  their own quake.
 - I've had people come
 to me and say this
is the most I've ever understood
about a space mission,
 I'm so happy I came,
because now I understand
what you're doing,
I understand why it's important,
and I'm really excited.
 - You kind of
 imagine how it looks,
but seeing it in person
actually puts it in perspective.
She was able to explain
a lot of what happens,
 the cameras, what
 goes into the ground,
 it's a great exhibit you know,
  both for myself,
  and also for kids
 that want to learn about Mars.
 - Okay, we want you to meet
 another Mars
 veteran here at JPL,
hardware director Mike Hawkins.
 You are a mission
 manager for curiosity.
 - Absolutely,
 I think this is the fifth
 Mars mission I've worked on,
 the fifth Mars lander,
so maybe we are getting
the hang of it finally.
  - Does it ever get better,
does it get old,
 is it always the same?
- No it doesn't,
 I think we are just
 as nervous every time,
 the whole landing sequence,
 it's just such a crazy time,
  and we can't do anything,
  it's this feeling
  of helplessness
 because the spacecraft
 is on its own,
and everything we could
do we did a day ago,
  and so I think you always
  have that nervousness,
 but we have confidence
 in the team,
  we have confidence in the
  engineers and scientists
that they did everything
that they could do,
 and you have to put
 it in their hands.
 - And it's our eighth
 successful landing,
 so we learn from this,
we learn a little more and we do
  it better the next
  time pretty much.
 - Absolutely,
we have had one failure,
we learn from the failures too,
we learned from all the
failures from all the missions,
  even if they are not JPL
  missions or NASA missions,
each one of them tells
you a little something,
 an extra test you should do,
 an extra thing you
 should guard against
 in the Mars atmosphere
 or on touchdown,
 and so we have learned
 from all of these,
 and luckily we have recently
 been very successful.
 - And we're always
 trying something new,
 we're always trying to
 learn something new,
 we had a situation this time,
 Odyssey couldn't be in place
 to give us bent
 pipe communications,
and so MarCO came about.
  - MarCO is just a
  incredible success story,
as you said we couldn't
have Mars Odyssey
  do the real-time bent pipe
 for the EDL events,
we would have had to
wait a couple of hours,
 and get the replay from
 Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter,
  so we embarked on
  this crazy idea
  to build these two
  little Cubesats,
  and Cubesats or something
 that high school kids
 can build these days,
  they go up and go
  around the Earth,
these are the first
interplanetary Cubesats,
  first time we've
  ever sent Cubesats
  outside the Earth's orbit,
 and their sole purpose
 was to do the relay,
 so they had this very
 cool expand planar
 flat antenna there,
 and they relayed the UHF
 signals in real time for us,
and it was just amazing,
 it was built by a lot
 of early career folks
  here at JPL with a little
  bit of adult supervision,
 but no the engineers just
 did a fantastic job on MarCO,
they exceeded all of our
wildest expectations,
 they worked perfectly,
we built two because we thought
maybe one will get there,
 they both got there,
  they both worked,
  it's just a great tribute
  to the whole MarCO team,
 you saw them in there,
 they had the special
 black shirts,
just a fantastic thing,
 and not only did it
 work for this mission,
but I think it opens up the door
 for more small
 missions like that,
 we could actually put cameras
 on them and other
 instruments on them,
 they're much less expensive,
  so there's I think
  a whole new door,
we just opened a door to
 a whole new class of
 planetary science,
 thanks to the MarCOs.
 - And the Cubesats they were
 just made with
 off-the-shelf parts.
 - Some combination of
 off-the-shelf parts,
and some new stuff that we did,
we had to build the
special radio of course
  because it has to talk to
  the deep space network,
  The antennas are a little
  bit new technology,
but a lot of the stuff
is pretty standard stuff
that you could replicate
at much lower cost.
 - So what do you think
 in terms of the future
 that other missions will be
 carrying their own relays
 and not having to depend on
 a bent pipe from an orbiter?
  - They might carry relays,
 they might actually carry
 scientific instrumentation,
 they can do more
 than just do relay,
they can actually take pictures,
 they could do spectrometry,
  they could do lots
  of other stuff
 that we would like
 to do with orbiters,
  so there's a chance we
  could send them to Venus,
we could send them to asteroids,
 we could send them to Mars,
 there's lots of stuff
 that we could do
and I think we're just
learning the capability
 of what we could miniaturize
 and what we could put
 on these Cubesats.
 But this is a
 great first effort.
 - Absolutely,
  well we have one
  question for you,
 it's a social media question
 from George Kay, aged nine
 from the UK,
 how long did it take to plan
and build this mission, InSight?
- Well that's a great question,
 so I have two answers to that,
InSight itself,
 typically our missions take,
 from the time we start
 the mission to the
 time we launch it,
 it's about four to five years,
 in the case of InSight
 two things happened.
  One to our advantage and
  one not to our advantage.
  The first is we had a lot
of heritage from a
mission called Phoenix.
 So a lot of the design
 work had already been done,
because it was done for
this mission Phoenix,
 and even before that
 for Mars Polar Lander,
 so a lot of the basic design
 we inherited for this mission.
On the other hand we had
a little bit of bad luck
In that the instruments,
 the seismometer is so
 unbelievably precise,
  it's so incredibly
  accurate and hard to build
 that we couldn't
 quite get it ready,
 so we're doing that in
 partnership with the French
 and a lot of other
 countries in Europe,
 including the UK and
 Switzerland and other folks,
  we couldn't quite get that
  ready to go for launch,
 so we had to actually
 wait two years,
  it took an extra two years
  then because of that,
 so Mars and the
 Earth are only lined
  up to launch about
  every 26 months,
  so we had to wait
  another 26 months,
  so that took us a
  little bit longer.
  - Well speaking of
  the internationals
  that's a perfect segue for
  where we're going next,
throughout this program
we've been trying
  to introduce you to the
  people behind the scenes,
 and for the InSight mission
 it requires that we
 go beyond our borders,
 this is truly an
 international mission,
 let me introduce you
 to Dominico Giardini,
  a Swiss Italian scientist
who studies Earthquakes
and Marsquakes.
 - And that partnership goes
 far beyond individual
 scientists,
 take a look at this,
  it is a picture
  of the calibration
 tool on the deck of
 the InSight Lander,
 it's what the team uses to
 calibrate the cameras on Mars,
and notice the flags and logos,
  its recognition of our
  international partnerships
  with the French Government
  Space Agency CNES,
 and also the German
 Aerospace Center DLR,
and it is my pleasure to welcome
 site project manager
 Philippe Laudet
  from CNES,
  and executive board member
  Hans Dittus from DLR.
So I can't imagine a better day,
what was your reaction.
 - A really great day, yeah.
 - So I am very enthusiastic,
  I am very grateful for all
  the people on the mission,
 also my folk who are
 going to the team,
the CNES team and the
science team [mumbles],
now we have a barebones
picture of the ground,
 and now the work to deploy
 the seismometer is beginning,
 so a new adventure in
 the best conditions,
 thank you for that.
 - Definitely a new adventure.
  Hans Dittus, what
  you're feeling,
 the HP cube is on that deck,
it will be ready to go.
 - Yes, now it's our job now,
 but first the fall I'd like
to congratulate our
partners here in the US,
  and this was a great day
  and a great job they did,
 it's not easy to land on Mars,
 that's what we know,
and it's a dream for me as well,
 because the first time
 that we land on Mars
 with an instrument, at least
 as I has experienced it,
 so it's a great day,
and it's really exciting so far,
  now the job starts for us.
 - Philippe you had once said,
 you are a musician as well,
 he plays jazz,
you see exploration
and music very similar,
 how's that?
 - Yes they are very similar,
because human management
 of all that activity
 is exactly the same,
 the technique it's different,
  you have a seismometer
  or you have an orchestra,
  but the raw theme to find
 the best talents and things
 like that are the same,
and to deliver on time,
 to be ready,
  and to have the
  best performances,
 everything is similar.
- And we should let people know
 that we won't be able to
 collect science right away,
is that correct?
- Yeah.
 - We will be will be
 collecting science,
 what several months from now?
- The deployment is going to
take about two or three months,
 of course we will have some
 data during the deployments,
 but the best data to
 make the best science
 will be about the
 beginning of March.
 - Alright so--
 - So we prepared now.
 - We prepare are now.
  - Yeah now it's the time,
  but it was a great job
  so far also for our team,
 and our teams,
 all the teams,
 and as you said it
 needs a lot of people
  to bring it up to Mars and
  make a successful mission.
 - Well I have to
 say congratulations.
 - Thank you.
 - Thank you.
 - Thank you for joining us.
Well here's another profile now,
  Meet Ravi Prakash,
it's his job to keep
InSight healthy on Mars.
- We get to explore the universe
  and see things that no
  one has ever seen before,
my name is Ravi Prakash,
 and my job is to keep InSight
 healthy when it's on Mars.
InSight is the first spacecraft
that is going to go to Mars,
  and try to understand how
  rocky planets have formed.
 A healthy InSight spacecraft
 is healthy batteries,
 we have heaters all
 over our spacecraft
 that keep our
 spacecraft warm enough
 so that it operates
 the way it should.
We look at these things as well
 as many other parts of our
 spacecraft on a daily basis
 to make sure we have
 a successful mission.
  There are thousands of
  people working on InSight,
 so the systems
 engineers responsible
 for understanding
 how changing one part
  of the spacecraft ripples
  through the entire system,
 and how that affects all the
 other parts of the spacecraft.
 I actually worked at
 JPL for eight years,
  and then left for
  about three years
  to work for a non-profit,
 where I used my engineering
 and design skills
  that I learned at NASA to
  help people in poverty.
 I realize that the stuff we
 do here impacts billions
 of people around the world,
 every single person,
whether they realize it
or not has been impacted
by NASA technology.
We are the next
generation of explorers.
- Alright let's meet
Ravi Prakash in person.
 Ravi is in our sandbox at JPL
 In Situ Instrument Laboratory,
 and wait a minute Ravi, where
 did that beard come from?
  - Hi Gay, there were about
  10 of us that decided
 on the day we launched to
 Mars that we we're gonna shave
and then not shave again
 for seven months
 until we land on Mars,
 so I am extra-excited
 that we landed,
not only because we have a
mission on the surface of Mars,
 but I have two little girls
  at home who love
  to pull my beard,
 so I can finally
 put an end to that.
 - Alright so Ravi help us out,
  what happens next,
 now clearly InSight is not out
of the woods just yet, correct?
 - Yeah right,
 so we have some very
 important steps ahead of us,
 the first is that we have
 to deploy our solar arrays,
 this is what the spacecraft
 is doing right now,
 it's deploying these
 two solar arrays
 so we get energy from the sun,
 this is one of the
 most important things
 that we have to do right now.
After that, we're gonna
do a serious of checkups
 on our spacecraft to make
 sure that everything survived
 this harrowing entry, descent
 and landing onto Mars,
 and then once that's
 complete after
 the next few days
 will start deploying
 our instruments onto
 the surface of Mars.
 - So what exactly is involved
with the instrument deployment?
 - So this is the
 first time we're using
a robotic arm to put instruments
on the surface of Mars.
 This is a process that will
 put our seismometer on Mars
as well as the heat flow probe,
 and it ends up taking
 about three months,
 which sounds like
 a really long time,
but this is because we
have to be very careful
and make sure everything happens
just the way it needs to,
  unlike Earth we can't send
 a technician if
 something goes wrong,
  and so we just want to get
  it right the first time.
- Alright, and in our interview
  we just heard that
  we may be looking
 at not until March
 before we get science.
 - That's right, we get some
 amount of science immediately
 as far as the
 environment of Mars,
  we get wind data,
  temperature data,
  magnetometer data,
 but then once we start
 getting seismic data,
 that will be in the
 March timeframe.
 - And can you explain
 to me Ravi, the ISL,
 the testbed that you're at,
 what do you do there?
- So this is a Martian sandbox,
for the past two years we've had
a great team that's been testing
  deploying our instruments
  on a variety of different
  slopes and rocks,
 now that we actually
 are on Mars,
we're gonna transform this area
 to look exactly like
 the place we landed,
 and test out deploying
 our instruments
one more time before we
do it on the real thing.
 - Alright thanks
 Ravi, congratulations.
  - Thanks so much.
 - Now that InSight is on Mars,
 it means some changes,
 InSight is no longer
 cruising to Mars,
so the team no longer needs the
cruise mission support area,
  in a little while the team
  will handover operations
  to a new group sitting in
  another JPL control room,
 this is the Surface
 Mission Support Area.
 It's in another
 building here at JPL,
 this is where the team will
 be operating InSight
 from here on.
  So the handover
  is the final step,
 and that will take place at
 about one o'clock our time,
 that's about a half hour away,
for us it's time to say goodbye,
 our congratulations
 to the InSight team,
  and special thanks to
  our EDL system engineers,
 Christine Szalai and
 Julie Wertz Chen,
 stand by for a news
 briefing on NASA TV
  at two PM Pacific,
  five PM Eastern,
 and for those of you who want
 the latest information
 on InSight and Mars,
 go to Mars.NASA.gov/InSight,
  and NASA.gov/Mars,
 and thank you all who shared
 pictures on social media,
 it was wonderful to share
 this historic event with you,
 we have some pictures for you
 that we'll leave you with,
 enjoy,
 and congratulations InSight.
 [upbeat music]
