{"id":4045,"date":"2020-07-30T23:22:00","date_gmt":"2020-07-30T23:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/?p=4045"},"modified":"2021-02-16T19:27:39","modified_gmt":"2021-02-16T19:27:39","slug":"mars-2020-mission-launched","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/mars-2020-mission-launched\/","title":{"rendered":"Mars 2020 Mission Launched"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/JIB3JbIIbPU\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/brendans-island.com\/blogsource\/20200519ff\/20200730-PerseverenceLaunch-0650a-658.jpg?w=640&#038;ssl=1\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I watched NASA&#8217;s Perseverance rover and Ingenuity helicopter take off at 6:50 this morning, 11:50 UTC. (July 30, 2020)<\/p>\n<p>If I heard coverage of the launch correctly, it wasn&#8217;t perfect.<\/p>\n<p>The Atlas V took off a few milliseconds early.<\/p>\n<p>A few hours later, a message from the spacecraft let folks on the ground know that it had gone into safe mode. Odds are that Mars 2020 got chilly while in Earth&#8217;s shadow.<\/p>\n<p>The onboard computer apparently noticed that conditions weren&#8217;t as expected and shut down everything except vital systems.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/JIB3JbIIbPU\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/brendans-island.com\/blogsource\/20200519ff\/20200730-PerseverenceLaunch-0650b-329.jpg?w=640&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"United Launch Alliance Atlas V-541, carrying Mars 2020, less than a minute after launch; July 30, 2020\" align=\"right\"><\/a>Mission controllers are checking out the spacecraft&#8217;s &#8216;health.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>My guess, and hope, is that whatever triggered safe mode was a hiccup. Not a problem:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/mars.nasa.gov\/news\/8724\/nasa-ula-launch-mars-2020-perseverance-rover-mission-to-red-planet\/\">NASA, ULA Launch Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover Mission to Red Planet<\/a>&#8221;<br \/>\nNews, Mars Exploration Program, NASA (July 30, 2020)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr>\n<p><a name=\"update\"><\/a><strong>Update (July 31, 2020)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Good news. Going into safe mode was not a problem. The spacecraft got cooler than expected while going through Earth&#8217;s shadow. Non-vital systems are powered up again. And, as JPL deputy project manager Matt Wallace said, &#8220;Next stop, Jezero Crater.&#8221;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/mars.nasa.gov\/mars2020\/timeline\/launch\/status\/\">Mars 2020 Perseverance Exits Safe Mode, Successfully Heading to Mars<\/a>&#8221;<br \/>\nMission Updates, Mars 2020, NASA (July 31, 2020)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr>\n<p>I&#8217;ll be talking about the Mars 2020 mission, the first Martian helicopter, biosignatures and the MOXI experiment. Later.<\/p>\n<p>Today I&#8217;ll say that &#8220;ULA&#8221; stands for United Launch Alliance, an American launch service provider; and talk about peanuts.<\/p>\n<h4><a name=\"jpls\"><\/a>JPL&#8217;s Peanut Tradition<\/h4>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Jet_Propulsion_Laboratory\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/brendans-island.com\/blogsource\/20200519ff\/20200730-JPLControlRoom-329.jpg?w=640&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) control room. Photo by Alan Mak. (2005)\" align=\"right\"><\/a>The folks who anchored the NASA\/JPL online video coverage explained why peanuts are on the snack menu for JPL missions.<\/p>\n<p>Seems that back in the day, Rangers 1 through 6 failed. Then, finally, Ranger 7 hit Earth&#8217;s moon, sending back pictures.<\/p>\n<p>The folks at JPL noticed that they&#8217;d had peanuts available during the Ranger 7 mission, but not during the first six.<\/p>\n<p>From then on, they made a point of having peanuts available.<\/p>\n<p>Superstition? Maybe. But JPL&#8217;s peanut tradition doesn&#8217;t strike me as &#8220;the deviation of religious feeling and of the practices this feeling imposes&#8221; that&#8217;s a bad idea. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vatican.va\/archive\/ccc_css\/archive\/catechism\/p3s2c1a1.htm#2111\">2111<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p>Besides, there&#8217;s a pandemic and a presidential election in progress. Promoting peanut peril seems paltry.<\/p>\n<h4><a name=\"lets\"><\/a>&#8220;&#8230;Let&#8217;s Keep Going&#8221;<\/h4>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/JIB3JbIIbPU\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/brendans-island.com\/blogsource\/20200519ff\/20200730-PerseverenceLaunch-ESA-DavidParkerLetsKeepGoing-658.jpg?w=640&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"ESA's David Parker, toasting the Mars 2020 launch.\"><\/a><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: xx-small;\">(From NASA, via YouTube, used w\/o permission.)<\/span><br \/>\n(ESA&#8217;s David Parker, toasting the launch: &#8220;&#8230;let&#8217;s keep going&#8221; (July 30, 2020))<\/p>\n<p>The Mars 2020 mission launched from Florida, on an American vehicle run by an American launch service. I think of it as an American mission. A partly American mission.<\/p>\n<p>The Perseverance rover will be leaving core samples for a later mission&#8217;s rover to pick up and load into a surface-to-orbit vehicle. A robotic cargo ship will take them back to Earth.<\/p>\n<p>The last I heard, Airbus has the contract for building what they call &#8220;the first interplanetary cargo ship.&#8221;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/science-environment-53575353\">Airbus to build &#8216;first interplanetary cargo ship&#8217;<\/a>&#8221;<br \/>\nJonathan Amos, BBC News (July 29, 2020)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I&#8217;m glad that quite a few Americans and my country&#8217;s government haven&#8217;t lost interest in one of this era&#8217;s major developments.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m also glad that we&#8217;re cooperating with folks in other nations. And, being human, competing. Which can be healthy. And that&#8217;s another topic.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, I can&#8217;t be sure: but I think that&#8217;s a model of Thunderbird 1, from Gerry and Sylvia Anderson&#8217;s old Thunderbirds series, on Mr. Parker&#8217;s shelf. We&#8217;ve come long way since my youth. And I think the last half century is just the beginning:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/insight-on-mars-now-what\/\">InSight on Mars: Now What?<\/a>&#8221;<br \/>\n(November 30, 2018)<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/mars-and-beyond\/\">Mars and Beyond<\/a>&#8221;<br \/>\n(February 16, 2018)<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/mars-leaky-red-planet\/\">Mars: Leaky Red Planet<\/a>&#8221;<br \/>\n(April 14, 2017)<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/mars-aliens-and-seti\/\">Mars, Aliens, and SETI<\/a>&#8221;<br \/>\n(December 16, 2016)<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/europa-mars-and-someday-the-stars\/\">Europa, Mars, and Someday the Stars<\/a>&#8221;<br \/>\n(September 30, 2016)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I watched NASA&#8217;s Perseverance rover and Ingenuity helicopter take off at 6:50 this morning, 11:50 UTC. (July 30, 2020) If I heard coverage of the launch correctly, it wasn&#8217;t perfect. The Atlas V took off a few milliseconds early. A &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/mars-2020-mission-launched\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[154,4],"tags":[16,164,22,40,39,88],"class_list":["post-4045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-discursive-detours","category-science-news","tag-america","tag-mars","tag-science","tag-solar-planets","tag-space-exploration","tag-superstition"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7Dwtw-13f","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4045"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4045\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4685,"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4045\/revisions\/4685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}