11/26/2018 – Ephemeris – NASA’s InSight spacecraft lands on Mars this afternoon

Ephemeris for Monday, November 26th. The Sun will rise at 7:54. It’ll be up for 9 hours and 11 minutes, setting at 5:05. The Moon, half way from full to last quarter, will rise at 8:43 this evening.

This afternoon NASA’s InSight spacecraft will land on Mars. It will drill into the martial soil to place a temperature probe to measure Mars’ heat flow to determine the interior temperature of Mars. It will also deploy a seismometer to detect marsquakes and seismic waves generated by meteorite impacts to ascertain the interior structure of the planet. The entry, decent and landing or EDL as it’s called begins at 2:47 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, with landing 6 minutes, 45 seconds later. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory calls it Seven Minutes of Terror. The spacecraft is on its own so everything has to go right. Mars is 8 light minutes away. The spacecraft will be on the ground one way or the other for over a minute by the time we get word that the spacecraft has entered the atmosphere of Mars.  NASA-TV, available on the Internet, starts its coverage at 2 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.

The times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.

Addendum

InSight landing infographic. Credit Emily Lakdawalla for the Planetary Society. Here’s her caption: Advance predictions for the details of InSight’s landing made several weeks beforehand. Adjustments to the trajectories of InSight or Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter may change these times by up to several seconds, as could weather on landing day. All times include 8.1 minutes of one-way light time delay (accounting for the time it takes signals to travel from Mars to Earth). Abbreviations used in the labels: EDL = entry, descent, and landing; E = entry; T = touchdown; h m s = hours, minutes, and seconds; UT = Universal Time (subtract 8 hours for Pacific, 5 for Eastern, add 1 for European time, add 8 for Japan).  Click on image to enlarge. 

To see Emily’s post with a lot more information, click on this URL:  http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2018/mars-insight-landing-preview.html.  The post has a link to NASA’s 68 page pdf Mars InSight Landing Press Kit, which covers all aspects of entry, descent and landing, the Mars Insight components, and science instruments, and what they expect to learn about Mars’ interior.

Components of the Mars InSight Lander. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech – Adrian Mann/Tobias Roetsch/Future Plc. Hat Tip to Space.com