Of Space and Turkey

UP AND AWAY: We started our day by watching a rocket launch. This time, it was in Russia - a cargo mission to the Internation Space Station.

This launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan was even more important than the typical launch, as it is kind of a reassuring test flight that systems are in working order before the Russians attempt to launch humans into space again. Last time they tried that, back on , one NASA astronaut and one cosmonaut would up making an emergency landing back on Earth after 

The capsule launched today is carrying almost three tons of food, fuel and supplies. It's set to dock with the ISS on Sunday. 

The crew on board the ISS is going to have lots of unpacking to do, as yet another cargo mission launches tomorrow. Saturday's launch will be a Northrop Grumman Antares rocket with a Cygnus cargo spacecraft. It will launch at 1:01 a.m. (Seattle time) from Pad 0A of Virginia Space’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, located at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on Virginia’s Eastern Shore. If you're a night owl, you can watch NASA TV  coverage online beginning at 12:30 a.m. The Cygnus capsule is scheduled for berthing on Monday, Nov. 19.

SAVE THE DATE: Circle November 26 on your calendars. That's the day that NASA's Mars lander is scheduled to touch down on the Red Planet. InSight is scheduled to land on Mars at about 12:00 p.m. PT (3:00 p.m. ET).

Short for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport, the InSight lander is designed to look for tectonic activity and meteorite impacts, study how much heat is still flowing through the planet, and track Mars' wobble as it orbits the sun. "InSight will help answer key questions about the formation of the rocky planets of the solar system," according to NASA.

We received an email from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory today letting us know how the team will know when InSight makes its touch down.  As it's happening, NASA's InSight team will be monitoring the Mars lander's radio signals using a variety of spacecraft, and Earthbound radio telescopes, to track what's happening 91 million miles (146 million km) away.

These signals will be relayed to Earth in different ways, at different times. Due to this fact, NASA reports the mission team "may know right away when InSight touches down, or they may have to wait up to several hours."

As InSight descends, the lander will broadcast radio signals called "tones" back to Earth. Engineers will be listening at the National Science Foundation's Green Bank Observatory in Green Bank, West Virginia, and the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy's facility at Effelsberg, Germany. Results will be relayed to Mission Control at JPL and engineers at Lockheed Martin Space in Denver.

The tones aren't much more than a "hello," but radio engineers will be able to use them to track key events during InSight's entry, descent and landing. For instance, when InSight deploys its parachute, there will be a shift in velocity, changing the frequency of the signal. Signals like these will let the team to know how InSight is progressing.

Interestingly enough, InSight isn't alone during its journey. A couple of MarCo CubeSats are flying behind it. These briefcase sized spacecrafts will attempt to relay its signals to Earth. NASA says the MarCOs are being tested as a way for future missions to send home data during atmospheric entry, descent and landing. 

After a safe landing, InSight is scheduled to send an "I made it!" signal, using a tone beacon that the radio telescopes will try to detect. Seven minutes later, it will send a "beep" from its more powerful X-band antenna, which should be pointed at Earth. This beep includes slightly more information and is only heard if the spacecraft is in a healthy, functioning state. It won't be until hours later that engineers find out if InSight successfully deployed its solar arrays.

In this video, Rob Manning, chief engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, explains the critical steps that must happen in perfect sequence to get the robotic lander safely to the surface.

For more information about InSight, go to its mission page: https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/

TURKEY TALK: While folding laundry this afternoon, we watched an episode of a PBS series, "It's Okay to be Smart." This show is about science, the universe, and the pleasure of finding things out. The topic of the video we watched today: The Dinosaur on your Thanksgiving Table.

It was really interesting. We encourage you to check it out!