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First NASA lander to study Mars' interior launches from California.



 
 
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  #1  
Old May 6th 18, 05:45 AM posted to sci.space.policy
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Default First NASA lander to study Mars' interior launches from California.

"An Atlas 5 rocket soared into space early on Saturday from Vandenberg Air Force
Base in California, carrying NASA’s first robotic lander designed for exploring
the deep interior of another planet on its voyage to Mars."


"The new 800-pound (360-kg) spacecraft marks the 21st U.S.-launched Martian
exploration, dating to the Mariner fly-by missions of the 1960s. Nearly two dozen
other Mars missions have been launched by other nations.

Once settled, the solar-powered InSight will spend two years - about one Martian
year - plumbing the depths of the planet’s interior for clues to how Mars took
form and, by extension, the origins of the Earth and other rocky planets."

See:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-s...-idUSKBN1I60DF
  #3  
Old May 6th 18, 04:50 PM posted to sci.space.policy
Jeff Findley[_6_]
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Posts: 2,307
Default First NASA lander to study Mars' interior launches from California.

In article , says...

On May/6/2018 at 12:45 AM,
wrote :
"An Atlas 5 rocket soared into space early on Saturday from Vandenberg Air Force
Base in California, carrying NASA?s first robotic lander designed for exploring
the deep interior of another planet on its voyage to Mars."


"The new 800-pound (360-kg) spacecraft marks the 21st U.S.-launched Martian
exploration, dating to the Mariner fly-by missions of the 1960s. Nearly two dozen
other Mars missions have been launched by other nations.

Once settled, the solar-powered InSight will spend two years - about one Martian
year - plumbing the depths of the planet?s interior for clues to how Mars took
form and, by extension, the origins of the Earth and other rocky planets."

See:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-s...-idUSKBN1I60DF

Does anyone know why they are launching from the west coast? It seems to
me to be not optimal for a Mars mission.


To avoid launch congestion at Cape Canaveral and insure it was launched
at the optimal time. Also, the version of Atlas had plenty of
performance for the mission. InSight is only 800 lbs, so it's
relatively light for a Mars mission.

For comparison, the Mars Exploration Rover missions totaled 2343 lbs for
each mission and were each launched on a "heavy" version of the Delta
II:

https://mars.nasa.gov/mer/mission/spacecraft.html

Jeff
--
All opinions posted by me on Usenet News are mine, and mine alone.
These posts do not reflect the opinions of my family, friends,
employer, or any organization that I am a member of.
  #4  
Old May 6th 18, 08:19 PM posted to sci.space.policy
Scott M. Kozel[_2_]
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Posts: 160
Default First NASA lander to study Mars' interior launches from California.

On Sunday, May 6, 2018 at 11:50:27 AM UTC-4, Jeff Findley wrote:
In article , says...

On May/6/2018 at 12:45 AM,
wrote :
"An Atlas 5 rocket soared into space early on Saturday from Vandenberg Air Force
Base in California, carrying NASA?s first robotic lander designed for exploring
the deep interior of another planet on its voyage to Mars."


"The new 800-pound (360-kg) spacecraft marks the 21st U.S.-launched Martian
exploration, dating to the Mariner fly-by missions of the 1960s. Nearly two dozen
other Mars missions have been launched by other nations.

Once settled, the solar-powered InSight will spend two years - about one Martian
year - plumbing the depths of the planet?s interior for clues to how Mars took
form and, by extension, the origins of the Earth and other rocky planets."

See:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-s...-idUSKBN1I60DF

Does anyone know why they are launching from the west coast? It seems to
me to be not optimal for a Mars mission.


To avoid launch congestion at Cape Canaveral and insure it was launched
at the optimal time. Also, the version of Atlas had plenty of
performance for the mission. InSight is only 800 lbs, so it's
relatively light for a Mars mission.


So did they launch it to the south or to the west? Going west they
would incur a big energy penalty due to the rotation of the Earth.
  #5  
Old May 7th 18, 12:37 AM posted to sci.space.policy
Jeff Findley[_6_]
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Posts: 2,307
Default First NASA lander to study Mars' interior launches from California.

In article ,
says...

On Sunday, May 6, 2018 at 11:50:27 AM UTC-4, Jeff Findley wrote:
In article ,
says...

On May/6/2018 at 12:45 AM,
wrote :
"An Atlas 5 rocket soared into space early on Saturday from Vandenberg Air Force
Base in California, carrying NASA?s first robotic lander designed for exploring
the deep interior of another planet on its voyage to Mars."


"The new 800-pound (360-kg) spacecraft marks the 21st U.S.-launched Martian
exploration, dating to the Mariner fly-by missions of the 1960s. Nearly two dozen
other Mars missions have been launched by other nations.

Once settled, the solar-powered InSight will spend two years - about one Martian
year - plumbing the depths of the planet?s interior for clues to how Mars took
form and, by extension, the origins of the Earth and other rocky planets."

See:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-s...-idUSKBN1I60DF

Does anyone know why they are launching from the west coast? It seems to
me to be not optimal for a Mars mission.


To avoid launch congestion at Cape Canaveral and insure it was launched
at the optimal time. Also, the version of Atlas had plenty of
performance for the mission. InSight is only 800 lbs, so it's
relatively light for a Mars mission.


So did they launch it to the south or to the west? Going west they
would incur a big energy penalty due to the rotation of the Earth.


This info, and much more, is in the InSight Press Kit. Click on "Launch
Sequences".

It launched southward. West is even worse for performance than
launching south.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/press_...sight/mission/

Jeff
--
All opinions posted by me on Usenet News are mine, and mine alone.
These posts do not reflect the opinions of my family, friends,
employer, or any organization that I am a member of.
  #7  
Old May 7th 18, 01:01 AM posted to sci.space.policy
Alain Fournier[_3_]
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Posts: 548
Default First NASA lander to study Mars' interior launches fromCalifornia.

On May/6/2018 at 3:47 PM, JF Mezei wrote :
On 2018-05-06 15:19, Scott M. Kozel wrote:

So did they launch it to the south or to the west? Going west they
would incur a big energy penalty due to the rotation of the Earth.



Could they launch straight up, and once above some safe altitude, then
veer east? After having flown for X seconds, aren't the odds of an
explosion way down and thus considered safe to fly over land?


It could be done. But it would be less efficient than going south for a
polar orbit how much less efficient depends on how high up one goes
before going east. And you would probably have to go very high up if you
have a conservative definition of when it is possible to over fly
populated land in a safe manner.

or is the eastward speed from earth's rotation lost as you ascend
straight up (lost to atmospheric drag) ?


No the eastward speed is not loss, the atmosphere rotates with Earth so
atmospheric drag won't cancel the eastward speed.

You don't lose eastward speed but you have big gravity losses. Once you
achieve orbital speed horizontally you no longer have to spend fuel just
to stay up and you don't have gravity loses any more. You want to get to
that point as fast as possible. But by going up first than accelerate
horizontally, it takes more time to reach orbital velocity horizontally
and you have more gravity loses.


Alain Fournier
  #8  
Old May 7th 18, 02:54 AM posted to sci.space.policy
Scott M. Kozel[_2_]
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Posts: 160
Default First NASA lander to study Mars' interior launches from California.

On Sunday, May 6, 2018 at 7:37:43 PM UTC-4, Jeff Findley wrote:
In article ,
says...
On Sunday, May 6, 2018 at 11:50:27 AM UTC-4, Jeff Findley wrote:
In article ,
says...

On May/6/2018 at 12:45 AM,
wrote :
"An Atlas 5 rocket soared into space early on Saturday from Vandenberg Air Force
Base in California, carrying NASA?s first robotic lander designed for exploring
the deep interior of another planet on its voyage to Mars."


"The new 800-pound (360-kg) spacecraft marks the 21st U.S.-launched Martian
exploration, dating to the Mariner fly-by missions of the 1960s. Nearly two dozen
other Mars missions have been launched by other nations.

Once settled, the solar-powered InSight will spend two years - about one Martian
year - plumbing the depths of the planet?s interior for clues to how Mars took
form and, by extension, the origins of the Earth and other rocky planets."

See:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-s...-idUSKBN1I60DF

Does anyone know why they are launching from the west coast? It seems to
me to be not optimal for a Mars mission.

To avoid launch congestion at Cape Canaveral and insure it was launched
at the optimal time. Also, the version of Atlas had plenty of
performance for the mission. InSight is only 800 lbs, so it's
relatively light for a Mars mission.


So did they launch it to the south or to the west? Going west they
would incur a big energy penalty due to the rotation of the Earth.


This info, and much more, is in the InSight Press Kit. Click on "Launch
Sequences".

It launched southward. West is even worse for performance than
launching south.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/press_...sight/mission/


I knew that Vandenburg is used for polar orbit launches, and that
westward would be used rarely if at all because of performance
issues.

As I suspected, they launched it to the south into a polar orbit,
and after less than one orbit they headed for Mars.

"The shape of the parking orbit is nearly circular at an altitude
of 115 miles (185 kilometers). However, the spacecraft will not
complete even one orbit. After the Centaur main engine's first
burn, the Centaur-spacecraft stack will coast in the parking orbit
until it reaches the proper position for start of the second
Centaur burn [trajectory to Mars]."



  #9  
Old May 7th 18, 06:02 AM posted to sci.space.policy
Fred J. McCall[_3_]
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Posts: 10,018
Default First NASA lander to study Mars' interior launches from California.

JF Mezei wrote on Sun, 6 May 2018
15:47:17 -0400:

On 2018-05-06 15:19, Scott M. Kozel wrote:

So did they launch it to the south or to the west? Going west they
would incur a big energy penalty due to the rotation of the Earth.


Could they launch straight up, and once above some safe altitude, then
veer east? After having flown for X seconds, aren't the odds of an
explosion way down and thus considered safe to fly over land?


No.


or is the eastward speed from earth's rotation lost as you ascend
straight up (lost to atmospheric drag) ?


No. But 'launching straight up' is generally stupid, since it does
nothing insofar as getting you into orbit goes. The only reason they
start out largely straight up is to get above most of the atmosphere
quickly.


--
"Some people get lost in thought because it's such unfamiliar
territory."
--G. Behn
 




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