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NASA is a busy time and today (November 26), the agency 's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is celebrating the successful landing of its Mars InSight lander, and its Director, Jim Bridenstine, focuses on the future.
Bridenstine shared a few words of animation from the Mission Control Center, moving away from the celebrations to talk to NASA TV.
"I'll tell you it was intense and you could feel that emotion," Bridenstine told JPL spokesperson Gay Yee Hill during the webcast. "It was really quiet when it was time to be quiet and, of course, very festive with each new information received. It's very different to be here than to watch it on television from a distance. I can tell you that it is certain now that I have experienced both. " [NASA’s InSight Mars Lander: Amazing Landing Day Photos!]
Bridenstine added that just after confirming the landing, he had received a call from a number called "with all zeros" on his phone. Mike Pence, the US Vice President, called to congratulate the team. Pence is also president of the National Council of Space.
Congratulation to @NASA, @Lockheed Martin, @ulalaunch, & everyone who made today @NASAInSight #MarsLanding possible! This is the eighth time the US landed on Mars and the first mission to study its deep interior. Amazing milestone! https://t.co/plgJch3Vpc
– Vice President Mike Pence (@VP) November 26, 2018
The success of the InSight landing after a nearly seventh month trip is extremely important for Mars scientists, who now have a tool to probe deeper than ever before. After the successful deployment of its solar panels, the lander will probe beneath the surface of the planet and measure meteor impacts and other seismic activities to better understand the inner structure of Mars. Researchers said during the webcast that the first scientific data should be available by March 2019.
NASA's director, Jim Bridenstine, receives a congratulatory call from Vice President Mike Pence after receiving confirmation of the successful landing of the agency's InSight probe on Mars on November 26, 2018 in the mission assistance area of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
Credit: NASA / Bill Ingalls
Looking forward to the future of the agency, Bridenstine has drawn up a long list of upcoming events for NASA: an American astronaut travels to the International Space Station aboard A Russian Soyuz spacecraft on December 3, the first scientific data from the solar probe Parker return On December 7, OSIRIS-REx will reach the asteroid Bennu by the end of December.
Then, on January 1, the New Horizons spacecraft, which flew over Pluto in July 2015, will reach the distant object of the Ultima Thule solar system, sending back images taken at a very short distance from this incredibly distant object.
"You ask what happens next?" Said Bridenstine. "Right now, at NASA, there are probably more projects going on than [since] I do not know how many years. It's like there was a drought and all of a sudden all these activities at once. So, we are busy. We will work during the holidays. We look forward to making huge discoveries and we look forward to them. "
Returning to InSight, Bridenstine added that everything we learn about Mars, such as the presence of water below the surface, will help humans to visit and access the planet's resources. He added that the current directive of the agency is to send humans back to the moon first. "We have to use the Moon as a testing ground to accelerate our march to Mars" – but "in the meantime, we are doing missions like InSight to learn as much as we can about Mars."
At a press briefing later in the day, Bridenstine spoke at length about NASA's plans for exploring the moon, but again stressed that Mars was on the horizon.
"We prove that capabilities and technology allow us to go to Mars even faster than if we had not used the moon as a tool," said Bridenstine. "In fact, your country is very committed to traveling to Mars and using the moon to achieve this goal as quickly as possible."
Email Sarah Lewin at [email protected] or follow her. @SarahExplains. Follow us on twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook. Original article on Space.com.
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