Mars landing a reminder of nation’s best, brightest

THERE was whooping and applause and high fives all around this week by a bunch of rocket scientists — no kidding. They had every reason to celebrate.

After traveling roughly 300 million miles since its launch May 5, a NASA spacecraft called “InSight” landed on Mars on Monday afternoon. It marked the eighth time that the United States has been to Mars. This visit is designed to yield something new by exploring the planet’s deep interior for the next two years.

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, the former U.S. representative from Tulsa, said InSight’s successful arrival “represents the ingenuity of America and our international partners, and serves as a testament to the dedication and perseverance of our team.” Amen to that.

The play-by-play of the landing underscores how remarkable the people are who figure out how to make these treks happen.

Project manager Tom Hoffman with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory said InSight was traveling at 12,000 miles per hour when it hit the Martian atmosphere, and just 6 ½ minutes later it had slowed to 5 mph and was touching down.

“During that short span of time, InSight had to autonomously perform dozens of operations and do them flawlessly — and by all indications, that is exactly what our spacecraft did,” Hoffman said.

Mars’ atmosphere is only 1 percent of the Earth’s, which makes landings on the planet especially tricky. Indeed, only 40 percent of missions to Mars by any agency have succeeded.

InSight was trailed throughout its journey by two satellites the size of a briefcase. Called Mars Cube One, or MarCO, these satellites were the first to fly into deep space and they relayed the news that InSight had landed successfully. There was an eight-minute gap between the time the satellites sent their message and the time it arrived, 100 million miles later, at the Jet Propulsion Lab in California, prompting, as Associated Press NASA reporter Marcia Dunn described it, “white-knuckle suspense” that then turned into jubilation.

The MarCOs also sent back some stunning photos of Mars before drifting away.

In 2021, NASA plans to launch its first mission to study the Trojan asteroids around Jupiter, a journey that’s expected to last 12 years. Three years ago, the spacecraft New Horizons arrived at Pluto after a 9 ½year journey.

The late Charles Krauthammer, a huge fan of space exploration, wrote in 2015 that projects such as New Horizons produce invaluable science, but also offer a reminder of another kind.

“For the wretched race of beings we surely are,” Krauthammer said, “we do, on occasion, manage to soar.” It happened again this week.