Vandenberg does not have a public viewing area, but the Lompoc Airport will not have any air traffic during the launch window and open to the public as a view point some 3 miles distant. We’ll be camping at Gaviota State Beach, where we might also have a nice few if the weather permits.
I am not a ‘Rocket Scientist’, but do find the night sky and our solar system interesting to learn a few things about. Lacking anything more interesting for the blog this week, I’m sharing some of what I’ve learned from the real rocket scientists.
Rendering from NASA website
So what is the InSight? InSight is a Mars lander with the mnemonic for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport. The instruments are interrelated to provide science tools to look back to the formation and evolution of Mars and how this applies to the rocky planets in general.
The NASA website lists the primary instruments as:
A Seismometer
SEIS senses seismic waves to study the crust of Mars. Meteorites impacting the surface, magma moving at great depths, or movement along a fault can all cause seismic waves on Mars. Studying the crust of Mars with the seismometer tells scientists about the temperature, pressure and composition of the stuff that first formed the rocky planets.
A Heat Flow Probe
HP3 burrows deeper than any other scoops, drills or probes on Mars before it. It will investigate how much heat is still flowing out of Mars. Its observations will shed light on whether Earth and Mars are made of the same stuff, and provide a sneak peek into how the planet evolved.
A Radio Science Experiment
RISE measures the slightest changes in the location of the lander to reveal how Mars is moving in its orbit. These measurements provide information on the nature of Mars’s deep inner core. They uncover the depth at which Mars’ core becomes solid, and what other minerals, besides iron, may be present.
The Launch Vehicle is an Atlas V, the largest rocket that can be accommodated at Vandenberg. This is a 2-stage rocket standing 188 feet tall and weighing in at 730,000 pounds. The InSight payload was mated to the Atlas 5 on Monday (4/23/2018). Final inspection was completed yesterday (5/3/2018). Today's pre-launch briefing completed with the words 'We are GO for Launch!'.
A pair of CubeSats that will accompany InSight to Mars were installed on their carrier aboard the Centaur upper stage last month. The current communication with the Mars Landers is half-duplex with a single communications satellite. That is data can be received from a Mars Lander or sent to one, but not both simultaneously, when there is a line-of-sight contact. An hour delay is not uncommon.
The pair of CubeSats will offer near real-time full-duplex coverage, this is a break through in space communications.
Rendering from Earth Sky website
I’ve been looking at our chances of actually viewing the launch. There are 2 really big concerns:
Delay – Often the launch does not go off as scheduled. There are a variety of reasons why a particular launch my be scrubbed and rescheduled for a later date.
Weather – ‘May Gray’ is real! June is the only month with fewer days of coastal sunshine than May. Even if the launch schedule meets our schedule, we could well be socked in. There are very few options to get above the coastal clouds for us.
With lots of bandwidth available the NASA Webcasts offer really the best information on the project.
If you did not make it to Vandenberg, the launch should be visible all along the west coast from Bakersfield to Ensenada, weather permitting.
Can’t make it to the west coast?, there will be live televised coverage of the launch will be available at: https://www.nasa.gov/live.
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