so all the way to the end he is interesting. i don't think you can find a president who isn't interesting. host: thank you for helping us with our series of presidents. this is from the times book series on all of the presidents. our guest has been ted widmer. mr. widmer: thank you. ♪ >> for free transcripts or to give comments about the program, visit us at qanda.org. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2018] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] after an almost seven-month journey covering 300 million miles, nasa's mars insight

lander is scheduled to touch down on the red planet today this is live coverage here on c-span. miles,sing 300 million insight has reached its destination, the red planet, mars. welcome to mission control at the jet propulsion laboratory. an hour for no consent will again the most harrowing six and insightan hour from no will begin the most hovering six and half minutes of the mission. who knows what mars has in store today echo the mission support area is filled with engineers monitoring the situation, and for the first time during the landing, you can be in the room, too. a 360-the great camera and the control allowing you to experience the landing right along with the team. there you see it. to look up the link, go to the

insight watch page you see on the screen. this mission has actually to control rooms. martinond is at lockheed just outside of denver, colorado. world are over the tuning in at museums and libraries and other locations, including this one at the pasadena convention center. that is where friends and family are watching right now. there will also be an opportunity -- watch in new york city, there they are cheering -- there will also be an opportunity to watch in new york city when the landing coverage gets displayed on the nasdaq tower in times square. if you are watching, please snap a picture and share it with us #marslanding. we would love to see it. now to introduce nasa administrator jim bridenstine. thank you for being here.

this is your first mars landing. job. this i have witnessed these from the sidelines for many years. this is going to be a time you a successful landing on mars. on wood. knock this is the first time to participate as the administrator. >> excited? nervous? >> not nervous. look at the amazing people here. right, we have to have you back on set after landing and take a couple social-media questions. if you would like to ask the administrator a question use #asknasa. you did ask about the lucky peanuts, so this is your bottle to take in there. >> happily munching on these. >> all right, thanks for joining us. let's give you some background. insight is short for interior exploration using seismic investigations, genesee, and he transport.

it is different from other mars missions which all study the surface. insight is the first mission to study the interior of the red planet. >> the basic idea of insight is to map out the deep structure of mars. we know a lot about the surface of mars from we know about it ionosphere, but we don't know -- we know a lot about the surface of mars, we know about its ionosphere, but we don't know about below the surface. this is the first mission to investigate the deep inside of mars. >> we know that the earth's habit winner that mars is not. or might be something we find out in terms of the structure of mars versus the structure of earth that maybe can help us understand why that is. >> insight carries a seismometer andh measures seismic waves maps of the deep interior structure of mars. a physicalhave

properties program which will penetrate into the mars surface about five meters from 16 feet, to take the temperature of mars. >> it has a radio science exterminate which uses the radio on the spacecraft to measure small variations in the wobble of mars' pole to understand more about the structure and composition of the court. >> insight will be the first instruments off the deck and place them on the service of mars. i like to say that we are playing the claw game on mars with no joystick. a wind andhave thermal shield that will be placed on top of that to protected further from the environment. alsor the heat probe, it needs to sit in one place, take a while to hammer itself down into the ground and acquired the thermal measurements over a long period of time.

>> insight is a mission to mars, but it is much more than a mars mission. it is something like a time machine. ofis measuring the structure mars put in place 4.5 billion years ago, so we can go back and understand the processes that shortly after it was accreted from the solar nebula. by studying mars, we will learn more about earth, venus, mercury can even ask of planets around other stars. -- event planets around other stars. >> landing on mars is always difficult. more than half the missions fail. experts in this field are systems engineers for entry, defense, and landing. let me introduce you to two in our control room. christine will be making the mission callouts during landing and julie is our color commentator who will help explain mission operations. christine, let's start with you. i understand that there was a

final software update and adjustment. what does that mean? >> that's right, yesterday we sent the last software parameter update to the spacecraft computer. this update told the spacecraft exactly when it will hit the top of the atmosphere and also find-tuned things like when to deploy the parachute. this software is very important because insight uses the software to perform entry, descent, and landing completely on its own. mars is so far away from earth that it takes eight minutes -- when a command is sent it takes eight minutes to reach the spacecraft. insight has to do this all by itself. te isl right, its fa sealed. i understand that the team is about to do a readiness pull. tothat is going to be a pole the communications engineer and

the orbiters and antennas we have on earth. we have marco listening in on us, and our reconnaissance orbiter will be listening to the data and recording it for us, and then the radio science engineers will be eavesdropping in honor signal all the way back on earth. engineerommunications will be checking in on that and making sure that they are ready to go and ready to support us in under an hour on mars. >> all right, we're standing by for that readiness pole. i understand that the peanuts are going to be packed in there pretty soon. >> that is the idea. we will be passing on the peanuts after that. for those of you who don't know, they are a tradition that gives us a little bit of extra luck on the critical events. if anyone wants to join in and give us extra good vibes, we would love to have it. >> there is a story behind that that way back when in the early

days, there were several missions, six ranger missions to the moon that failed. seven,n with ranger somebody passed around peanuts. >> and it worked. and you don't mess with what works. it is a tradition. we just give ourselves a little bit of extra luck. >> if you have peanuts at home, please have some. had seven successful mars landings, but the edl team never becomes overconfident. jpl chief engineer says that things have to work just right during six and a half critical minutes. although we have done it before, landing on mars is hard, and this mission is no different. the process to get from the top of the atmosphere of mars to the service is called entry, descent, and landing, or edl.

it takes thousands of steps to go from the top of the atmosphere to the service, and each one has to work perfectly to be a successful mission. aboveocess starts well the top of the atmosphere of mars. radio whichits faces earth. but now we don't need the cruise stage. its job is done. the next step just seven minutes before rising to the top of the mars atmosphere is to separate the cruise stage. before you hit the top of the atmosphere, the space capsule has to orient itself so the heat shield is precisely facing the atmosphere. now the fun begins. the vehicle is moving at nearly 13,000 miles an hour for some it is getting the top of the mr. at a very shallow angle, 12 degrees. any steeper, the vehicle will hit the part of the atmosphere

and burn up. any shallower, the vehicle will bounce off the atmosphere of mars. at the top of the atmosphere it is 70 miles above the service of mars come and the air is starting to get thicker and thicker. as it does that from the temperature of the heat shield gets well over a thousand degrees centigrade. the vehicle decelerates at a g's, anding 12 firsearth about 10 miles above the surface of mars, supersonic parachute is launched out of the back of the vehicle. it is time to get rid of the heat shield. firera technique devices simultaneously, allowing the heat shield to fall and tumble vehicle, exposing the lender to the surface of mars. 10 seconds after the heat shield is dropped from three pirate technically deployed legs are released unlocked for landing. a minute later, the landing radar is turned off sending

pulses towards the surface of mars. the vehicle starts to try to measure how high it is about the service and how fast it is going. and about a mile above the surface of mars, the lender falls away and lights the center. very quickly the vehicle must rotate out of the way so the parachute does not come down to hit it. the last thing that has happened is that on the moment of contact , the engine has to shut down immediately. if they don't, the vehicle will tip over. if all the steps of entry, descent, and landing happened perfectly and we are safely on of mars can we will be ready to exciting new science. >> meantime, let me introduce you to someone who has been working on insight for seven years. he is the project manager.

seven years, and today's the day. >> that's right, seven years from the we are a little over 40 minutes now and we will be on the surface and it will be awesome. all worth it. >> so let's talk about insight. using tried-and-true technologies from this time there is a bigger challenge with communications, correct? normally we haven't orbiter that can give us communications, but it is different this time. >> most of the time when we have landed recently we have the odyssey and we get real-time data as we go through edl. we have come to expect that and we really, really want that. in this case the primary orbiter is the mars reconnaissance orbiter. it will be listening to us on uhf. it will be listening to us and getting all the primary data, and he will send it back to us unfortunately about three hours after we land. >> so it does not give the live

information. >> we have a couple of other sources we're looking at. observatory in germany -- the max plank observatory in germany. for those give us a couple points in time. we get something cool this time w. hopefully these are both working great today. we hope they will continue to work all the way through edl command they will be giving us a real-time feed. we will show how that works on the video there. you can see insight getting close to mars. we have 2 stalkers following us. you can see the green is we're sending uhf signals to them. they turn around and give a much stronger signal to earth. you cannot medicate with u -- communicate with uhs direct to earth, but marco can.

marco is basically trying to fill the gap that we would have had if we have live communication coming down to us. so if that doesn't work, does it affect insight's mission at all? >> not at all. it is a little more no biting, but right now it will be -- a little more nailbiting, but right now it looks like it will be working. the spacecraft will phone home once it gets on the ground. it has gone seven months through the cruise. it will call back and say, "hey, i'm on the surface, i'm feeling pretty good, everything looks good so far." >> also to prep the audience can even after the landing we are not out of the woods just yet. >> not just yet. quite literally we are going to kick up a lot of dust on land. we want that to settle before we unfurl our solar rate. we are 100% solar powered. both mro and marco will be out

of view by the time we have is completely unfurled. we will have to wait 5.5 hours until odyssey comes by and says that our solar rays are out. we will have a celebration when we get the successful landing, but we will have to temper that just of it and wait 5.5 hours to make sure we are in good shape. >> we have immediate knowledge, so just to run it through a once again, what will happen with adl? -- edl? how is this going to play out in six and a half minutes? >> you can see we are attached to the cruise stage. thank you for the ride to mars. it burns up in the atmosphere. you can see it gets very hot on our heatshield. in some places maybe 3000 degrees fahrenheit as we go through this. we are on the heatshield for about four minutes was that dissipates 90% of the energy.

then we popped our parachute and we are going 860 miles an hour. we're on that for about two minutes. we drop off the heatshield. we start acquiring the ground without radar like an f-16 jet radar. the descent thrusters can we have 12 of them. thrusters dropping us to the ground and slowly, slowly we drop down going only five miles an hour. 6.5 minutes of tear, a little less than the seven minutes, which is great for me. 75 miles about the surface of mars. we get to the surface for 5.5 miles an hour. >> before we go, there is a couple of pictures to show you. we have watched parties taking place all over the country. see if we can put those up for you to see. this is opined. this is a person who has a watch

party in a classroom. isn't that great? both are watching with us. >> people all across the globe are watching this. >> i will let you back. i know you are excited. take care. thanks for joining us. >> thank you. >> ok, let's introduce you to the people who built insight. lockheed martin outside of denver -- they built viking in 1976 and mars phoenix in 2008. the operations team is there,

and the lucky in that schlocky -- lockeed insight edl manager is standing by. >> we are about half an hour from entry, and the start of entry to let incomes so the team is excited and focused but also very excited about the upcoming successful wedding we are getting close to. -- landing we are getting close to. >> we talked about the fact that insight is based on tried-and-true technologies, but you had to make a couple of changes for insight. what were they? >> obviously, as you said we leveraged phoenix a lot. there is a lot of great things to take from the phoenix mission, but insight is a unique mission. it is landing towards the equator of mars, and a number of things are different. we are 1.5 kilometers higher in altitude. in addition, what that has required us to do is come in a little more shallow.

in addition, we are a little bit heavier than phoenix was, so we had to increase some of the strength of the lander itself. a littleed parachute bit higher because of some of the differences in the entry timeline. and because of when we are landing, we are landing towards the end of dust season. we are about a quarter-inch thicker on the heatshield to accommodate the potential sandblasting upon landing. a number of things have changed, but we have leveraged a lot from the successful phoenix mission as well. >> that is fantastic. you were able to customize it. there were concerns earlier on that there was a dust storm taking place, it was just storm season. >> that's right. we have had a lot of great support from our orbiting assets -- mro and odyssey, problem spacecraft we are partnered with that were built here at lockheed martin. i have provided great insight into the weather -- they have

provided great insight into the weather on mars and dust storms on mars. the last couple weeks, on the surface of mars we are anticipating a nominal seasonal weather in terms of density, atmosphere, as well as temperature, dust storms appear to be very be nine. we are very optimistic it is a great day for landing on the surface of mars. >> all right, great news. thanks, tim, and i know your teen is getting excited as much as we are. , absolutely. isolate. ok. >> the time is 11.21. the tension is building in both control rooms. it is 20 minutes before separation. the separation is expected about 40 minutes past the hour, so we are indeed getting close. where is insight going to mars? called elysium phoenicia.

it is located near the equator north of gale crater, not too far from curiosity rover. the team calls it the biggest parking lot on mars. it is a place that is safe, got plenty of sunshine, that will power solar instruments to study the interior of mars. >> what is insight mars? -- inside mars? we know a lot about what is inside earth, but on mars we have scratched the surface. to learn how mars formed, we have is that deep interior. lander wasght designed to do just that by taking the planet's vital signs, listening to its poles for seismic activity, including marsquakes, taking its temperature to see how much heat is flowing from inside command checking his reflexes to see how much the planet wobbles as it cooks around the sun.

these provide clues to what the planet is like inside. what is inside mars? insight can help us out by giving mars its first thorough checkup since it formed 4.5 billion years ago. the more we learn, the better we will understand the planets and the history of our solar system. is theing us now principality is to get of mars -- principal investigator of mars insight. insight is a mission to mars, but we keep hearing again and again it is more than a mission to mars. >> that's right, we are to study the martian interior and map out the position inside mars, but we want to use the information to understand more about the solar system as a whole and how the rocky planets form. >> and rocky planets -- we have an image to show, folks. we're talking about earth, the moon, mars. inner planets of the

solar system that are made mostly of rock. they show the same basic structure with the dense iron core, rocky mantle, and then because of lighter silicate rocks. the very detail of the thickness of those layers, the sizes and the compositions give us a lot of clues as to how those planets form and why they went down different paths into the different planets we see today. >> explained to me -- we are going to have a lander. you are going to be on the surface. how will you be able to study interior? >> we use what are called the geophysical instruments that use the principles of physics to see through the rocks. the sameeismic waves, way you might use a flashbulb to take pictures of something. we are using marsquakes, which send out vibrational waves to the planet, and as they go through the planet, they reflect off boundaries and change their velocity.

wiggles you see on the seismograph, when we go through the planet. we can see it hits the various boundaries and the waves are reflected. it becomes a pretty complicated pattern. but scientifically we have learned over the last 100 years how to interpret the code of the signals as it comes back up to seismometersnd the pick of that signal and turn it into data we can use on earth to understand what the 3-d structure is of the planet. >> normally you use three seismometers. how are you going to be able to get the information using one? >> well, we had to get kind of clever. you could use multiple seismometers to get in on where the earthquake is. on mars, we are going to do something a little different. we are going to use not only the

p and s ways, but we will use the surface waves. you can see these moving out from the mars quite, and as it passes over the insight lander, you can see the seismograph in the upper left-hand corner where you have the wiggles. mars is not so large. amount of have a fair amplitude. they've not gotten completely amped out by the time they get around the planet. finally, even the other way around the planet, it comes across and hits a third time. we have extra information over just the p and s waves. we have the surface wave arrivals to pinpoint the distance of mars quick to the lander. then you use something called polarization analysis to figure out which direction the waves are coming from.

>> there is another instrument that is also being carried up by insight. >> that is our heat flow probe. it is a cool instrument that uses mechanical mold to burrow its way down into the surface. it has a motor winds up the hammer and knocks itself down a few millimeters and a time. 30,000 hammer- strokes and we hope to get 16 feet below the surface. once we are down there, we are measuring the heat coming out of the planet by measuring the temperature along the table as it comes to the surface, and looking at how the temperature increases as we go down and extrapolates that for the planet to understand how much energy there is inside the planet to kesve the geology and marsqua and all kinds of -- >> it is amazing how much you

learn from the surface about the interior. >> it is amazing and something i've been working on my whole professional career. i find it fascinating. >> all right, we will talk about that. thanks. bruce thought of the mission like this come as he mentioned, 40 years ago when he was a graduate student. the rest of the team is not waited quite that long, but this is a big moment for them, too. we sat down with a few of the members and asked what it is going to be like as we get close to landing. >> it is a very difficult thing to do, and every thing has to go perfectly. as humans we sent in 17 different missions to the surface of mars and 10 of them have crash. before we land on mars, we have to get to mars. >> the main responsibility of the navigation team is to ensure the the spacecraft is in martian and miss her. accuracy is comparable to

shooting a basketball from the staples center in downtown l.a. and hitting a hoop in new york city that is moving at a speed of two feet per second. >> it is about 60 miles long and we can been anywhere in that . nywhere in that ellipse. >> where tested pieces of the heat shield. we tested the parish and placing it in a wind tunnel. putting that together in a tightly controlled sequence where every single thing has to go right we have never tested that. the first time it is going to happen is when it delivers us to mars. about 11:29 a.m. pacific, and you are watching live coverage of the insight lending from the nasa jet propulsion laboratory in pasadena, california.

we are about a half-hour away from lending, and people all over the world are watching. take a look at the map we have or you. a watch-in-person map, where people have watched ,arties all over the world paris, berlin and even off the coast of madagascar. in the big apple be watching today. the nasdaq cap we switching over to landing coverage for about an hour. people in times square can watch, too. later today nasa will have the the closingging bell, and that will be a little over an hour from now. if you are watching, take a picture and send it to us using #marslanding. here is one. i believe it is from the california science center in los angeles, and i am told mayor eric garcetti will be visiting

later today. things are getting more active now.he team let's check back in with julie in the control room. what is going on, julie? >> we have heard from mro a couple of times mars reconnaissance service. they are doing great. we have heard from both marcos, a and b, and they are doing great. everybody is ready to go. we're pretty excited. >> fantastic. we will check back in with julie in a moment. this is a good time to tell you more about the technology experiment we've been telling you about, marco. insight does not have an orbiter in position to send the edl data back live, so the cube test hopes to fill that gap. here is how that will work. >> communicating between mars and earth requires complicated choreography with everything in

the right place at the right time. sometimes hours can past before information is relayed from one location to the other. that is why the rocket will carry two tiny satellites on a technology test of their own. , themars cube one, marco first cube mission to keep space. they will test out new miniaturized technologies. if they make it to mars, they can relate information back to dissentout insight's and touch down and do it in your minutes. although this is crucial to the success of the lander, this could change the way future spacecraft phone home. >> all right, let's check back in with julie to see if the marcos are ready to support and listen for insight. julie, what do you know? >> they are ready to go. i haven't heard it coming up

yet, but they are ready to go and they are both healthy and doing great, which is wonderful news. actually, i think they should be doing it in just a minute. >> we will stand by and listen, then.

>> we can confirm we are entry minus 20 minutes. the star tracker has been powered off.

>> software has been initiated, so when we are improved, we use the star trek are in a similar trackero how -- star in a similar manner to how we use them years ago. now that we are close enough to mars, we don't need that anymore, so we will transition, and that let's us basically use velocity and acceleration, so we don't need to star tracker right now. >> marco clarify. >> appropriate attitude for bent pipe. >> ok, thank you very much. > and that was obviously our confirmation, so that is great

news. >> fantastic. before thatsaying the software will propagate from here on out, so we have powered of our star tracker and every thing is looking great. >> ok, thanks, julie. whose stagehe separation is about four minutes away -- the cruise stage separation is about four minutes away. joining us now, the chief and an absolute veteran of mars landings. we will play a little video for you now. you haven't seen it yet, but we will roll it. >> letter is still alive. >> there you are. you were sitting -- [laughter] >> yeah.

that is what it looks like when it is successful. >> yes. >> i hate to see what it would have been like if it wasn't successful. >> but talk about that. ike? is edl white-- l why is it so hard? >> is -- it is many years of work by many, many people, and particularly because we cannot test the landings on this planet. it is much more complicated. mars has a lower atmosphere, thinner atmosphere, less gravity. imagine you have a big broadway production you cannot do the show until all the audience shows up. that is what it feels like. you never really know if you are offended right. > -- have done it right. >> well, we have done it seven times. can we say piece of cake, we know how to do it? >> no, i don't think so.

we get better of it, no doubt. we have learned from our successors and the successes and failures, including failures of missions outside the country. we try to put what we learned together and just do the best we can. if we don't succeed, we will learn, because we're collecting data on the way down. if something bad happens today can we are able to take what we learned, even if we may fall on the ground kicked off the horse, we get back up and see what we did wrong and get back on the horse. very quickly, give us possible scenarios of what could happen during edl today, especially during communication. >> the great use of having communication -- almost anything can go wrong, there is a very good chance we will figure it out. things like the parachute -- you don't open parachutes on earth going 1.5 times the speed of

sound. you don't do that. you don't need to on this planet. but we have to because if we wait longer we will be on the ground. a very complicated radar system has to work from outer space all the way to the ground. what if it locked up on the heatshield? we tried to fix that problem to prevent it from happening i. and like that happen and the vehicle could have things that he meant -- things bad happen -- >> cruises state separation.

>> cohead. will have time mro loaded the electric sequences. marco is expecting carrier lock anytime. marco-b has reported the bent pipe. still waiting. >> copy that, thank you. >> science report, uhf carrier detected. >> edl -- [applause]

bravo has locked on the carrier. marco alpha has also locked on the carrier. [applause] as expected -- [indiscernible] >> copy that, thank you. systems,ation inside lost the signal from insight, indicating expected cruise stage separation. standing by for uhf signal

acquisition via marco or radio science. we are about five minutes from entry and have confirmation we have lost the signal from insight. this was expected because we have transition from the antenna to the uhfse stage antenna on board the spacecraft. ground stations have detected the uhf signal and marco has locked on the signal. this confirms that insight is transmitting uhf signals as expected. insight's salaam entry through the marco relay is not expected until two minutes before entry. >> so that is exactly what we were hoping to hear, that -- >> the eagle has performed the turn to entry maneuver. the vehicle is turning away and oriented itself to enter the martian atmosphere. >> wow, this is a big first

step. just getting the cruise stage separated, it is the vehicle turning itself to the right orientation. the cruise stage is going to be further and further away. three or four football fields away. it will burn up in parallel as the vehicle enters mars. >> christine mentioned turned to entry. what does that mean? >> because the cruise stage has to push off to one side, the rest of the vehicle has to turn to face the atmosphere. >> this is taking all the heat coming into the atmosphere. >> exactly, it will be a source of drag but also thermal protection, because it gets 1500 degrees celsius on the heat shield. very, very hot. but on the inside of the heat shield, it is only a few degrees above room temperature. it is a wonderful protective device to keep our lander say. >> all right, the next thing we

are standing by for is -- >> is entry. gradually slowing down. right now the vehicle is just now beginning -- very simple the beginning to feel the atmosphere -- very soon will be beginning to feel the atmosphere touching it. it is a half minute or so after answered before we start really detecting the fact that the atmosphere is slowing it down. >> all right, we will be standing by.

.ntry is scheduled for 11:47 entry times are locked in, correct? >> they are. they are locked in. selected the target and aim to the vehicle precisely. that allows them to know the entry point, 35 to 55 kilometers from the center of mars. >> we know those times are locked in, but what about the other events -- >> dropping carrier power is expected.

s have telemetry. >> they are doing their job. relaying 1s and 0s with a few seconds lag from the vehicle up to these two vehicles, and back to earth to the deep space network using the expand antenna. >> keep in mind this was all an experiment. we weren't sure this was going to work, but we had this need that we did not have live communication in this particular mission. >> we don't need their information except if something goes wrong. we have other -- >> we are receiving insight telemetry via the marco relay. [applause] watch the data flowing onto the screen -- >> this data will provide you tell information about the state of the spacecraft throughout

edl. -- detailed information about the state of the spacecraft throughout edl. >> we were on pins and needles about that because we weren't really sure. >> this is wonderful news. if this continues working all the way to the ground and beyond, we might see a first picture from the surface of mars. >> wouldn't that be great? >> atmospheric metric on my mark -- 3, 2, 1, mark. >> here we go. >> a few seconds, the vehicle will start sensing the atmosphere. 22 kilometers from the center of mars. it will start to slow down very slowly, of course, but then faster and faster and faster, until it reaches about seven g's. i make that mistake on the video. it is seven g's, not 12. but it will very quickly slow down.

>> in approximately one minute, insight is expected to reach its maximum heating rate. plasma blackout is possible during peak heating and could cause a temporary drop out of telemetry. this could last for as long as two minutes. gas that comes off the heat shield as it is slowing down, it looks like a meteor if you are on mars watching the street go by. the gas does interfere with radio reception, so it is possible that marco will lose the signal allowing it to go to the very hot entry. >> not to be alarmed. >> not to be alarmed, it is a part of the design we completely expected. >> plasma blackout is expected. >> ok. wow. reported stations have plasma blackout. still receiving insight telemetry via marco.

>> marco alpha has carrier interruption. >> insight should now be experiencing the peak heating rate. portions of the heat shield should reach 3000 degrees fahrenheit as it protects the lender from the heating environment. -- the lander from the heating environment. >> that is hot. >> carrier interruption but still in law. -- lock. >> insight has passed through peak deceleration. telemetry shows the spacecraft -- >> marco alpha and marco bravo

-- >> radio science carrier detected. >> distant communications coming in. >> insight is traveling at a velocity of 2000 meters per second. >> seems to have passed this very critical point of peak heating, peak deceleration. the next big step is parachute inflation. >> we can see that on our timeline at the bottom of the screen. parachute deploy. >> insight is now traveling at 1000 meters per second. once insight slows to meters per second, it will deploy its supersonic parachute. the partnership will the plane nominally at -- will deploy nominally at mach 1.7. standing by for parachute

deploy. >> radio science reports sudden change in doppler. >> ground stations are moving signals consistent with parachute deploy. [applause] >> marco alpha, marco brock maintain lock status was >> telemetry shows parachute deployment. radar powered on. [applause] heatshield separation commanded. >> this is really good news so far.

i'm on pins and needles. activation,adar where the radar is beginning to search for the ground. once the radar locks on the ground, insight is one kilometer above the surface. the lander will separate and begin terminal to send -- terminal descent using its 12 engines. altitude convergence -- the radar has locked on the ground. >> yes! [applause] >> standing by for lander separation.

>> carrier interruption on marco alpha and marco bravo. >> lander separation commanded. altitude 600 meters. turn, multitude 400 meters. -- multitude 400 meters. 300 meters. 200 meters. 80 meters. 60 meters. 50 meters. constant velocity. 37 meters. 30 meters. 20 meters. 17 meters. standing by for touchdown. touchdown confirmed.

[applause] [laughter] >> wow. >> that's fantastic. >> never gets old. >> no, it doesn't. control room just erupted. >> fabulous, fabulous. there.o sitting >> the designer -- what a great team. this is really fabulous.

thank you. fist pumping going on there. what a relief. we had over to the camera over in times square. boy, people are weathering the rain to see this.

>> this is the hardest part. the thing has a lot more to do, though. a lot more will go on today and in the days that follow before the science can begin. just getting the vehicle from earth to the surface of mars is no mean feat. >> talk about that. i mean, just the mere accomplishment we are seeing. >> you have to understand, this vehicle is very complicated. 12 engines. ach of those pulse 10 times second, releasing these tiny imposes almost like little bullets that keep the vehicle going at a constant velocity as it approaches the ground and still going over five miles an hour. we still don't know the state of the vehicle right now. we need to to make sure there are no rocks nearby and the solar panels in about five to 10

minutes will begin to open up and wait for the dust to settle, because there is certainly a lot of dusting in the air around the vehicle right now which is now just settling. >> so we are standing by after touchdown. it waits a couple of minutes. and so we are standing by for that. it is the communication that comes to replay to earth from insight. this directly to earth from -- it comes directly from earth to insight. >> and to the deep space network. insight might be able to relay an image or partial image taken just a few -- a couple minutes after landing. i'm standing by in hoping to see that. if that doesn't happen, we will certainly get more images later. >> receivers banner -- we see bruce banner waiting for it. i don't know if they see it yet. >> they are waiting, looking

carefully at the camera to see what they might see. waiting for the image to come back. >> this is the first image from insight itself. insight is taking a picture with one of its two cameras. probably a view of what is directly in front of the spacecraft, right in front of the lander. this is a camera it would be using to figure out if this is a good space, a good place to put down our instruments. it is going to take an image and send that image to the marcos. the marcos in turn will relay it back down to earth. [cheers] >> let's see what they saw. there it is. wow.

of -- don'ta lot see a lot of -- >> let's explain that image. this image has a dust cover -- >> we have lost the signal from marco. >> [indiscernible] for uhf. yay, marco. [applause] congratulations. oh, there it is. you can see a better view. there is the horizon back there. bluish sky. one of the lander deck. i can't make it out but it looks like there's not a lot of rocks, but those dots you see are

likely to be dust particles on the lint, dust cover. which will be removed. >> it will get another shot later on. sorry, the relay communications job is done. they are taking pictures back towards mars. hopefully which flew overhead, i'd have been lucky enough to capture this insight lander on its parachute, while this is going overhead flying recording the data, also monitoring the transaction and recording, every single -- signal is good. rover, we might be able to see it deflated. >> that is fantastic here we are standing by now.

i am here. i'm ok. [indistinct conversations] >> reports carrier detected. [applause]

>> copy that, thank you. >> we have got it perfect. hopeis is what we really we imagined in the minds eye. out ines things work your favor. was atainly looks like it successful and perfect landing to her we will have to see as we get more data how well things go. as the vehicle perceives the solar panels are to put. hopefully -- hopefully we are on a hill and it doesn't look like we are. wey will be deployed safely hope and we will get confirmation around 5:00 local time here in about 4.5 hours from now.

becauseis so difficult there is no way any of these engineers could possibly control the vehicle. it all began in software. >> we have to train it to do the work on its own. >> carrier, 30 seconds passed the first acquisition. we are on the surface. >> it is happy and the weather is not complaining. we have a way to tell us if it is unhappy. it is not unhappy. show the long for the rest of the afternoon on mars. >> and are you are anxious to

get in. thank you for sitting here and helping us out. right i will let you go. take care. [indistinct conversations] >> recording completed at 20:04. [indistinct conversations]

[indistinct conversations]

>> all right. we said we would bring back the administrator to get your take on what it would be like to get into the control room. what is it like? >> intense. it was very quiet when it was time to be. with every new piece of information received. very different being here than watching it on tv by far, i can tell you that. as soon as it was over, i got a call on my cell phone. it is got to be someone important, so i answered it and it was the vice president to you watched the whole thing and was ecstatic about the program. he is a chairman of the national council.

a keen advocate for what we do. call -- just so toryone knows, he wants me say congratulations to everyone here at nasa and all the international partners and everyone who has contributed to this mission. >> it is an amazing accomplishment in that this is millions andpening millions and millions of miles away and these people are able to do it. fascinating, the whole time watching and i'm thinking every milestone eight minutes ago, from mars to earth. exciting back and -- but step back and realize this has already occurred in history. experience.ue the enthusiasm is incredible.

through december. happeningbout what is next. be a rocket. it was scary. we have that underway december 3. that ont science data december 7. that is not too far away either. orbit shortlyan after christmas,-- no shortage of exciting things. aware, went to put her back in 2014 and give us stunning images and data and information science on pluto pair that mission is still going

strong. it is an asteroid belt well beyond cute -- pluto taking object which we have out anden able to go take images of anything close range before. you ask what is happening next. now at nasa, there is more underway, i don't know how many years tops,, there are always activities at once. the holiday but a lot of amazing discoveries are being made. >> it is so funny because he basically answered the question, has it influenced to the timeline for mars missions? >> everything we learned about mars at this point will help us

understand today. insight could provide good information about liquid water on mars and how to get to it. we strongly believe there is liquid water 10 kilometers under the surface of mars. answer is yes, the more we learn in the more we're able to achieve. to get to mars, yes. mission, go to the moon, go sustainably with international and commercial partners, and that means we will have reusability built into the system. test and prove technology at the moon that ultimately, we can replicate it mars. improve at the moon, only a three-day journey, we saw that with apollo 13. we need to use the moon as a ground.

in the meantime, when you join learn as much about mars as possible. it will help us know how often is march getting him -- mars getting impacted and if those humans will experience impacts. much our goal. to learn about and build upon those missions. >>'s a has a long history of doing amazing work and building on past successes and failures. >> that is true. atwhat an amazing time to be the helm of this extraordinary agency. >> we are glad you are here to share it with us. thank you for joining us. in there ando celebrate with these folks. thank you. exploration, if you are not

convinced yet, talk about these scientists and engineers. the excitement so earlier this year, 15 california senate -- cities. they call that the inside roadshow. ,> we're here in san francisco part of insight roadshow. it is the first interplanetary mission we ever launched from california and we are doing a lot of public engagement activities. wesley are talking to the public and getting them excited and sharing information they probably would not catch us from the website. >> we have a replica of the actual launch vehicle, a selfie station where people can take pictures. children really like mars.

>> we invite kids to come in and jump. students can come and jump next to it, they make their own. people come to me and say this is the most i've ever understood about a space mission. im so happy i came because now understand what you're doing and why it is important. >> she was able to explain a lot of what happened. it is great. kids who want to learn about mars. >> ok. we want you to meet another mars veteran. director mike, you are a manager for curiosity. >> absolutely. this is the fifth mars lander

that i have worked on. we may be getting the hat -- a handle on it finally. >> does it get old? nervous everyas time. we can't do anything. it is a feeling of helplessness. i think you just always have the nervousness. you have engineers and scientists and everything they can do in their hand. >> our eighth successful landing. a little more and do it that are the next time. >> we went through all the failures from all of the missions. you ane of them tells little something, and extra test you should do or thing to guard against. we learned from all of these.

we have recently been very successful. >> couldn't be in place to give us communications. marco came about. >> we couldn't have mars odyssey do it for these events. replay, we embarked on these,zy idea to build something high school kids could build these days. these are the first interplanetary outside of the earths or that. the sole purpose was to do the relay. relateflat antenna, they the signals in real time for us. just amazing. a lot of career folks here with a little bit of adult supervision. they just did a fantastic job and it exceeded all of our

expectations. it is a great tribute to the whole team. they have a special black shirt. not only didhing p it work for the mission, but it opens up the door for more small missions like that. we put other missions on them. door thanks toew them. >> they were just made with off-the-shelf parks -- parts. >> we had the radio of course, antennas are little bit new technology. a lot of this is standard stuff to replicate at a lower cost. terms ofo you think in other missions carrying their own relays and not having to depend on an orbiter? >> they might carry with relays.

they can do more than just relays. they can take pictures, spectrometry, a lot of stuff we would like to do with orbiters. there is a chance we could send them to venus, asteroids, mars, a lot of stuff we can do and we're just learning the kid ability of what we can put on these. it is a great first effort. >> absolutely. one question for you. a social media question from george, from the u.k.. how long did it take to plan and build those >> i have two answers. the insight itself, typically the missions take from the time we started to the time we launch it, five years. two things happen. one to our advantage and one not. we have a lot from a mission called phoenix.

a lot of design work was are redone for this mission even before that. design we inherited from this mission. we had a little bad luck in that the instruments, the size monitor is so unbelievably precise. it is so hard to build that we couldn't quite get it ready. in partnership with the french and a lot of other countries in europe, including the u.k. and wetzerland and other folks, could not quite get it ready to go for launch and we had to wait two years and took an extra two years because of that. watchonly lined up to every six months. it took us a little longer. >> speaking of the international, it is a perfect segue of where we are next. we have been trying to introduce you to people behind the scenes. truly an international mission.

a swiss italian scientists who studies earthquakes. siloed -- some of us, it is a lifetime problem. and i amon earthquakes a professor at university. my main field -- inside is a nation to measure and help us. there are two main reasons why is important. a big motivation coming for community goals. in this mission is to deliver electronics. --will provide daily this is what our students work on.

direct relevance of how we understand our world. >> the partnership goes far beyond individual scientists. look at this. it is a picture of the calibration tool on the insight lander. calibrate on to mars. notice the logos. it is a recognition of international partnerships with french, german, government space connect, and the german aerospace center. it is my pleasure to welcome the project manager, an executive board member. i cannot imagine a better day. what is your reaction? >> i'm grateful for all of the people in the mission.

we have a picture of the drone and it is beginning. thank you. >> definitely a new adventure. what is your feeling? on that deck, it is ready to go. congratulateke to our partners pier 1 a great day and great job they did. it is not easy to and on mars. marsirst time we went on as i have experienced it, it is a great day. this was really exciting so far. you are a once said, musician as well, you play jazz. you see exploration and music is very similar.

how is that? >> yes. the management of all activities --he technique andgs like that to be ready have the best performances. >> we should let people know that we will not be able to see this right away is that correct? we will collect several months from now. >> it will take about two or three months. we will have some data but the best would be the beginning of march. >> all right. it was a great job so far for our team and all of the teams and as you said, it needs a lot

up tople to bring it mars. >> i have to say congratulations. all right. thank you for joining us. here is another profile now. meet robbie, and it is his job healthy on mars. >> we get to explore the oneerse and see things no ever has seen before. my job is to keep healthy when on mars. it is the first crash test to go to mars and try and understand. a healthy insight his healthy batteries. we have heaters that keep warm enough. we look at many other parts of our space craft on a daily basis to be sure we have a successful mission. we have thousands of people working on it. it ripples through the entire system and how that affects other parts.

left for about three years and worked for a nonprofit where i use my design skills to help people in poverty. the stuff we do here, every single person impacted by the technology, we are the next generation of explorers. >> all right. let's meet robbie in person, in , instrument laboratory. wait a minute. where did the beard come from? >> esp or 10 of us decided on the day we watched mars that we would not shave again for seven months until wendy on mars. i am excited we landed not only because we have a mission on the surface but i have two that love to pull my beard. >> all right. what happens next? clearly, not out of the woods just yet. >>. we have very important steps ahead of us.

these two the point so we get energy from the sun. it is one of the most important things we have to do right now. after that, we make sure everything survives this landing to mars. days, -- next few exactly is involved with the instrument deployment? >> is the first time where using a robotic arm to put instruments on the surface of mars. the process will put seismometers on mars as well as the probe. it takes about 12 months which takes a long time. we have to be careful to be sure everything happens like it needs to appear at we cannot send a technician if something goes wrong. theant to get it right first time. >> all right. in our interview, we heard we may be looking at not until march? >> that is right. we get some amount of signs

data,ately, temperature but then once we start getting seismic data, that will be in the march timeframe. >> all right. , what doxplain to me you do there? >> for the past few years, a great team will be testing. exactly like the place landed, one more time before we do the real thing. >> thanks. congratulations. now that insight is on mars, it needs some changes inside. no longer cruising to mars so the team no longer needs the support area. in another control room. this is the surface mission

support area. another building here. it is where the team will be operating insights from here on. .he handover is the final step that will take place at about 1:00 our time about a half hour away. to say goodbye. .ongratulations standby to news briefing on nasa tv 5:00 p.m. eastern. for those who want the latest information on the insight and mars, go online and nasa.gov/mars. thank you all who shared pictures on social media. wonderful to share this with you. enjoy and congratulations.

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♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2018] >> our coverage of the mars insight landing is courtesy of nasa tv. here is a tweet. , --el you insight also sent back its first picture from mars right there on the screen. >> when the new congress is in january, there will be more than 100 house members. -- new members. democrats control the house,

republicans, senate. new congress and new leaders. watch the progress unfold on c-span. >> coming up later in the afternoon, a look at the impact of populism and identity politics with authors and political scholars. the heritage from foundation starts at 5:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. on the eve of mississippi's u.s. senate runoff election, president trump will hold a senatorr republican cindy smith, running against former agriculture secretary mike, live beginning at -- eastern. adcock p.m. eastern. as part of an reform on criminal justice issues, sat down with cnn and eventr van jones hosted by variety and rolling stone magazine in california. >> hello.

look. i am doubly happy. tripley happy. i'm happy we have so much leadership in this room. this conference has been extraordinary. i'm happy to be here with somebody who has emerged this year as one of the most effect of and impactful criminal justice advocates, surprising i think herself as much as anybody else. i'm also proud to announce that while we are sitting here, president donald trump is in the roosevelt room with a bunch of senators, a bunch of our friends, a bunch of tv cameras, announcing that he is going to support the first step act, which is unbelievable. [applause] van: we will get into all of it, talk about it, but the journey to get from a president who when he was being sworn in was

talking about american carnage, when he was elected, the prison stocks went through the roof. the assumption being that he was going to go on a prison building boom. to go from that less than two years ago to what's happening right now, where he's endorsing prison reform, sentencing reform, talking about miss alice johnson as he loves to do. by the way, ms. alice johnson is here. give her a round of applause. [applause] van: we will get into her story. it would have been impossible, and i can say this because i've been front row for this whole process. this whole motion of the president, at least on this issue, if not others that we