NASA has named <keyword id="16018160" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="indian-american-aerospace-industry-expert" source="Orion">Indian-American aerospace industry expert</keyword> A.C. Charania as its new chief technologist to serve as <keyword id="209836" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="principal-advisor" source="Orion">principal advisor</keyword> on technology policy and programs at the agency's headquarters in Washington.<br /><br />In his role, Charania will align NASA's agency wide technology investments with mission needs across six mission directorates and oversee technology collaboration with other federal agencies, the private sector, and external stakeholders.<br /><br />The role is housed within NASA's Office for Technology, Policy, and Strategy.<br /><br />"The rate of advancement we seek in the 21st century is dependent upon selecting and maturing a portfolio of technologies into systems to execute our missions," Charania said in a NASA press statement.<br /><br />"With this in mind, there are incredible opportunities in partnerships within and outside of NASA. I now look forward to the opportunity to work with the entire community to increase the rate of space and aviation progress," he added.<br /><br />Charania will serve as principal advisor to Administrator Bill Nelson. Prior to joining NASA, he served as vice president of product strategy at Reliable Robotics, a firm that works to bring certified autonomous vehicles to commercial aviation.<br /><br />His previous experience also includes working at Blue Origin to mature its lunar permanence strategy, Blue Moon lunar lander program, and multiple technology initiatives with NASA.<br /><br />"A.C. is an experienced leader in managing large, rapidly shifting technology portfolios. I am eager for him to apply his knowledge and enthusiasm at NASA," Bhavya Lal, NASA associate administrator for technology, policy, and strategy, said in a press statement.<br /><br />Lal served as acting chief technologist prior to the appointment of Charania, whose first day working at NASA Headquarters was January 3.<br /><br />Charania has also worked in strategy and business development for the Virgin Galactic (now Virgin Orbit) LauncherOne small satellite launch vehicle program.<br /><br />He also served in multiple management and technology roles at SpaceWorks Enterprises, including helping to incubate two startups, Generation Orbit and Terminal Velocity Aerospace.<br /><br />Charania led the formation of the FastForward industry group focused on high-speed point-to-point transportation, was a NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts fellow, and served on the Lunar Exploration Analysis Group Commercial Advisory Board, according to the agency release.<br /><br />He received a bachelor's and a master's degree in aerospace engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology, and a bachelor's in economics from Emory University.<br /><strong>SEE ALSO:</strong><br /><a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/india/news/heat-waves-floods-and-even-dust-storms-took-2227-lives-in-2022-imd/slidelist/96874034.cms" style="">Heat waves, floods and even dust storms took 2,227 lives in 2022: IMD</a><br /><a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/india/news/govt-extends-rbi-deputy-governor-patras-tenure-by-one-year/articleshow/96870234.cms" style="">Govt extends RBI Deputy Governor Patra's tenure by one year</a>

Indian-American A C Charania named NASA's chief technologist

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5bf834bac95701499d190dc4-1920/nasa-mars-insight-robotic-probe-landing-mission-animation-lockheed-martin-00016.png" border="0" alt="nasa mars insight robotic probe landing mission animation lockheed martin 00016" data-mce-source="Lockheed Martin/YouTube" data-mce-caption="An animation of NASA's InSight probe attempting to land on the surface of Mars." data-link="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0lwFLPiZEE" /><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0lwFLPiZEE">Lockheed Martin/YouTube</a></span></p><p class="caption">An animation of NASA's InSight probe attempting to land on the surface of Mars.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul class="summary-list"><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/nasa-insight-lander" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NASA's Insight lander</a> has <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-insight-mars-probe-landing-successful-science-mission-2018-11">landed safely</a>. The robot will soon start beaming back information about <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-insight-mars-probe-mission-landing-goals-2018-11">quakes and wobbles on Mars</a>.</li><li>Mars doesn't have tectonic plates like Earth, but learning more about how volatile the planet may be could help scientists better understand how Earth developed to sustain life.</li><li>A former NASA chief says scientists are "drooling" for new data about the interior of Mars.</li></ul><p>InSight is on the ground. NASA just dropped an <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-insight-lander-2018-3" target="_blank" rel="noopener">SUV-sized quake-hunting laboratory</a> on Mars - the US space agency's eighth successful landing on the red planet.</p><p>The new solar-powered lander doesn't move. It doesn't record videos. And of InSight's two tiny cameras, one points straight down at the red dust.</p><p>But that doesn't mean it's a boring mission.</p><p>"All of our past missions have really been surface missions that have characterized the surface, the geology, the astrobiology of the surface," NASA's former chief technologist Robert Braun told Business Insider, days before the lander touched down. "InSight's a very different mission in the sense that it is peering into the past by studying, really, the interior of Mars."</p><p>Now a consultant for National Geographic's Mars series, Braun helped develop all of NASA's previous Mars missions, including Curiosity - <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mars-curiosity-rover-selfie-dust-storm-2018-6" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the selfie-snapping rover</a> that's roaming the Martian surface today. He said this new lander could help scientists find clues about what makes life on rocky planets possible.</p><p>"There's a whole group of scientists - a very large group of scientists - that are basically drooling to get more information about the interior of Mars," he said.</p><p>One big question those researchers want to answer: Is Mars still a dynamic place with quaking rumblings like our own earthquakes?</p><p>Four billion years ago, Earth wasn't so different from Mars or the other crusty globes of the inner solar system: Mercury and Venus. Then something happened that made Earth a nice place to live.</p><p>"Our measurements will help us turn back the clock and understand what produced a verdant Earth but a desolate Mars," Bruce Banerdt, InSight's principal investigator, said <a href="https://mars.nasa.gov/news/8388/what-two-planetary-siblings-can-teach-us-about-life/?site=insight" target="_blank" rel="noopener">in a recent NASA blog post</a>.</p><p><span>Braun described the mission in similar terms. </span></p><p><span>"We can't investigate the Earth's early history anymore because of all the changes of the Earth," he said. "You know, water, wind, tectonic plates, have all eroded the very early history of the Earth. But at Mars, we can still learn about that period in our solar system's formation and in our planet's formation."</span></p><p>The movement of tectonic plates is of the processes scientists point to as key for the emergence of life on Earth. The continents and oceans sit on top of these plates, and tectonic activity can release life-sustaining materials like water, carbon dioxide, and methane that create a breeding ground for life. <span>   </span></p><p><span>Mars doesn't have such plates, but that doesn't mean the planet is shake-free. So InSight is designed to sense and monitor Mars' version of quakes. </span></p><p><em><strong>Read More</strong>: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-insight-lander-2018-3" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NASA just dropped a solar-powered lander onto Mars - here's what InSight will do on the red planet</a></em></p><p>That data will be immensely valuable to Earth scientists, and it could also one day aid in the quest to put humans on Mars.</p><p>"Understanding the interior of the planet, and what the resources are throughout the interior of the planet, would be important if you were going to one day have a human settlement there," Braun said.</p><p>It will take InSight months to fully set itself up as a research base. But just moments after landing, it sent back a first glimpse of its new home:</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5bfc538866be50655c3cb6f5-930/nasa-insight-mars-lander-landing-success-first-photo-jpl-caltech-youtube.jpg" border="0" alt="nasa insight mars lander landing success first photo jpl caltech youtube" data-mce-source="NASA JPL/YouTube" data-mce-caption="The first photo that NASA's InSight Mars lander sent back to Earth on November 26, 2018." data-link="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGD_YF64Nwk" /><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGD_YF64Nwk">NASA JPL/YouTube</a></span></p><p class="caption">The first photo that NASA's InSight Mars lander sent back to Earth on November 26, 2018.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Mission control couldn't have been more thrilled to see the dusty photo.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5bfc5388e4218a7c4416cdaa-1280/nasa-insight-mars-lander-landing-success-mission-control-staff-hugs-high-fives-02-jpl-caltech-youtube.jpg" border="0" alt="nasa insight mars lander landing success mission control staff hugs high fives 02 jpl caltech youtube" data-mce-source="NASA JPL/YouTube" data-mce-caption="Scientists and engineers inside mission control at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory celebrate the landing of the InSight Mars probe." data-link="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGD_YF64Nwk" /><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGD_YF64Nwk">NASA JPL/YouTube</a></span></p><p class="caption">Scientists and engineers inside mission control at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory celebrate the landing of the InSight Mars probe.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/microbes-alien-life-on-venus-in-mysterious-clouds-2018-5">Forget Mars, there could be life on Venus</a></h3>        <div>            <iframe class="bijwplayerclass" data-player="jwplayer" src="https://content.jwplatform.com/players/8KcgUfEK-CEZHWCBG.html" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" scrolling="auto" style="margin:0px;" allowfullscreen=""></iframe><script>function receiveMessage(event){ console.log(event.data.fullscreen); Android.fullscreen(event.data.fullscreen); }window.addEventListener("message", receiveMessage, false);</script>        </div>    </div>

NASA's InSight lander may not be as sexy as a Mars rover, but here's why the mission matters for Earthlings

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5bf834ba38150754d61b7a35-1920/nasa-mars-insight-robotic-probe-landing-mission-animation-lockheed-martin-00015.png" border="0" alt="nasa mars insight robotic probe landing mission animation lockheed martin 00015" data-mce-source="Lockheed Martin/YouTube" data-mce-caption="An animation of NASA's InSight probe attempting to land on the surface of Mars." data-link="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0lwFLPiZEE" /><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0lwFLPiZEE">Lockheed Martin/YouTube</a></span></p><p class="caption">An illustration of NASA's InSight probe on the surface of Mars.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul class="summary-list"><li><strong>NASA just successfully landed its <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/nasa-insight-lander" target="_blank" rel="noopener">InSight robot</a> on the surface of Mars.</strong></li><li><strong>InSight won't move around <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/mars" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mars</a>, but it will be the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-insight-mars-probe-mission-landing-goals-2018-11">first mission to take the red planet's temperature</a>.</strong></li><li><strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/nasa" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NASA</a> will also <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-insight-lander-2018-3">listen for Mars quakes</a> caused by meteorite impacts and tectonic movements. The vibrations could help decipher the interior structure of the planet.</strong></li><li><strong>Scientists hope InSight will help answer questions about how rocky planets become habitable (like Earth), or inhospitable (like Mars).</strong></li></ul><p>While online shoppers celebrated Cyber Monday deals, NASA researchers cheered the successful landing of a new probe on Mars.</p><p>The roughly $830 million mission is called <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-insight-lander-2018-3">InSight</a> - short for "Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport."</p><p>NASA <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/photos-video-show-blast-off-as-nasa-insight-probe-launches-to-mars-2018-5">rocketed</a> its 789-pound robot toward Mars on May 5, along with two briefcase-size satellites called MarsCubeOne that <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/planet-mars-image-nasa-marco-cubesat-2018-10">trailed the spacecraft</a> to help record and relay crucial landing data.</p><p>InSight completed a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-insight-mars-mission-landing-when-what-time-2018-11">treacherous 14-minute-long descent</a> to the Martian surface around 2:54 p.m. ET on Monday, then confirmed its safe arrival with a beep - a moment that sent scientists and engineers jumping and screaming for joy in mission control at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.</p><p>Today's Mars landing was the first since the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nuclear-powered-spacecraft-nasa-history-2017-3">nuclear-powered</a> Curiosity rover reached the red planet's surface more than six years ago.</p><p><em><strong>Read more</strong>: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mars-facts-statistics-2017-5">13 incredible facts you probably didn't know about Mars</a></em></p><p>Now that NASA has a new high-tech robot on the Martian surface, planetary scientists are eager to put InSight to work. But they'll have to wait until Monday night to know for sure that InSight is healthy.</p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"We're going to kick up a lot of dust when we land, and we need to let that dust settle before we want to unfurl our solar arrays," <a href="https://mars.nasa.gov/people/info.cfm?id=22920">Tom Hoffman</a>, the InSight mission's payload manager, said during a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGD_YF64Nwk">live broadcast</a> by NASA. "We're 100% solar-powered, so it's very important that we get those out."</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">NASA expects to confirm the solar panels are deployed around 8:30 p.m. EST. Assuming all goes well, the spacecraft will be poised to probe Mars over the next two Earth years in ways researchers had only dreamed about.</span></p><p>"InSight's a very different mission in the sense that it is peering into the past by studying, really, the interior of Mars," <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/braun_bio.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Robert Braun</a>, NASA's former chief technologist and a technical consultant for National Geographic's "Mars" series, previously told Business Insider. "In doing so, we're going to learn about Mars, but also about the early history of the Earth."</p><p>Here's what NASA hopes to discover with InSight now that the probe has arrived safely.</p><h2>Why NASA landed InSight on a flat Martian plain</h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5bf847b98c35ab4e6177e8c0-2400/mars-elysium-planitia-martian-surface-insight-lander-photo-simulation-nasa-jpl.jpg" border="0" alt="mars elysium planitia martian surface insight lander photo simulation nasa jpl" data-mce-source="NASA/JPL-Caltech" data-mce-caption="A simulation of Elysium Planitia on Mars, where NASA hopes to land its InSight probe." data-link="https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA22743" /><p class="source"><span><a href="https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA22743">NASA/JPL-Caltech</a></span></p><p class="caption">A simulation of Elysium Planitia on Mars.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>InSight landed on Mars at a place known as <a href="https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/timeline/prelaunch/landing-site-selection/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Elysium Planitia</a>. It's a relatively flat region that's free of boulders, craters, and other potentially mission-ending obstacles.</p><p>The location might seem boring - certainly compared to the ancient mountain that Curiosity is now climbing - but researchers say InSight is well positioned to pull off an unprecedented scientific mission.</p><p>Elysium Planitia sits just north of Martian equator, where the sun's rays are relatively strong year-round. Using two circular solar panels to capture that free energy, InSight could operate for two Earth years (or one Martian year).</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5bf5ad4fe4218a27014a0eb5-1280/elysia-planitia-insight-mars-lander-site-map-nasa.png" border="0" alt="elysia planitia insight mars lander site map nasa" data-mce-source="NASA; Business Insider" data-mce-caption="NASA plans to land its InSight robot at Elysium Planitia near the Martian equator." data-link="https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/timeline/prelaunch/landing-site-selection/" /><p class="source"><span><a href="https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/timeline/prelaunch/landing-site-selection/">NASA; Business Insider</a></span></p><p class="caption">NASA landed its InSight robot at Elysium Planitia near the Martian equator.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>That's a huge difference from InSight's nearly identical predecessor mission, the Phoenix Mars Lander.</p><p>Phoenix landed in 2008 and dug for water ice near Mars' north pole. But the robot died after a few months because sunlight was too feeble to warm its electronics.</p><p>InSight is equipped with different scientific instruments from Phoenix, though, and researchers think the soil at Elysium Planitia will be loose enough to allow the robot to pound a heat probe deep into the ground.</p><p>This will help InSight perform the first-ever "<a href="https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/mission/science/overview/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">checkup</a>" of the 4.6-billion-year-old planet.</p><p>"InSight's goal is to study the interior of Mars and take the planet's vital signs, its pulse, and temperature," NASA says on its mission <a href="https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/timeline/landing/summary/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">website</a>. "To look deep into Mars, the lander must be at a place where it can stay still and quiet for its entire mission. That's why scientists chose Elysium Planitia as InSight's home."</p><h2>Probing the ancient secrets of Mars - and Earth, too</h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5bf58adbe4218a21e025c105-2400/mars-rocky-planet-hot-molten-core-interior-cutaway-illustration-nasa-pia16078orig.jpg" border="0" alt="mars rocky planet hot molten core interior cutaway illustration nasa PIA16078_orig" style="color: #000000;" data-mce-source="NASA/JPL" data-mce-caption="A cutaway illustration showing what scientists think the interior of planet Mars might look like." data-link="https://images.nasa.gov/details-PIA16078.html" /><p class="source"><span><a href="https://images.nasa.gov/details-PIA16078.html">NASA/JPL</a></span></p><p class="caption">A cutaway illustration showing what scientists think the interior of Mars might look like.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>The InSight mission's ultimate goal is to figure out how Mars formed and what happened to the planet since then. Scientists know that Mars once generated an atmosphere-protecting magnetic dynamo, as Earth still does today. But the Martian core's dynamo eventually shut down and the planet's protective shield faded, which allowed the sun to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-mars-lost-water-atmosphere-solar-wind-2015-11">blow away Mars' atmosphere</a> and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mars-ocean-mega-tsunami-surface-2016-5">oceans of water</a>.</p><p>Now that InSight is powered up and in touch with Earth, it will use its robotic arm to pluck a dome-shaped instrument off of its landing platform and gently place it on the Martian surface. The dome contains six sensitive vibration-detection devices called seismometers.</p><p>Seismometers on Earth and the moon (<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/apollo-moon-landing-photos-nasa-1969-2018-7">Apollo astronauts deployed some on the lunar surface</a>) have recorded earthquakes and moon quakes, which have helped scientists figure out the internal structure of those rocky worlds. On Mars, NASA researchers hope to accomplish a similar feat: listening for Mars quakes.</p><p>Whenever a meteorite strikes Mars, or there's a landslide, or a big blob of magma suddenly shifts, or there's tectonic movement, InSight's seismometer should detect such vibrations. The devices can even record seismic activity from all the way across the planet.</p><p>Over time, data about Mars quakes could reveal hitherto unknown information about the internal structure of the planet.</p><p>The other device InSight will deploy is a <a href="https://theoatmeal.com/comics/insight" target="_blank" rel="noopener">mole-like</a> heat probe. The 6.5-lb probe will <a href="https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/spacecraft/instruments/hp3/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">hammer itself</a> into the soil, stopping every so often to heat up. An onboard sensor will then detect how long it takes that warmth to dissipate.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5bf487ca1011422418009513-2250/webpnet-resizeimage.jpg" border="0" alt="NASA InSight Mars lander" style="color: #000000;" data-mce-source="NASA/JPL-Caltech" data-mce-caption="An artist illustration of the InSight lander on Mars." /><p class="source"><span>NASA/JPL-Caltech</span></p><p class="caption">An artist illustration of the InSight lander on Mars.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>The probe is expected to dig 16 feet down - far deeper than any previous Mars mission has ever reached with scoops, shovels, or drills.</p><p>"When we get down that deep, we'll get away from all of the temperature variations of the surface," Suzanne Smrekar, the mission's deputy principle investigator, said during a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bz4f7zlGETI" target="_blank" rel="noopener">press briefing</a> in October. "That tells us about the heat coming out of the planet - that energy that's available for driving geologic activity."</p><p>The data will help Smrekar and others calculate how quickly energy in Mars' core can escape - the equivalent of taking the planet's temperature.</p><p>Such warmth is left over from Mars' formation some 4.6 billion years ago, though it also comes from the decay of radioactive elements. These measurements are critical for decoding the red planet's past, as well as that of Earth's and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-space-telescope-tess-searches-for-alien-planets-2018-8">other rocky planets</a>. That's because heat flow from the core can help drive plate tectonics, a factor believed to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/goldilocks-exoplanet-habitability-internal-heat-2016-8">separate habitable worlds from dead ones</a>.</p><p>Researchers can also use the data to figure out whether underground <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/martian-oasis-water-extraterrestrial-life-2017-5">pools of warm water</a> could exist on Mars. Such pools, if present, may support <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/martian-oasis-water-extraterrestrial-life-2017-5">microbial alien life</a> (and provide <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/astronaut-plants-air-food-water-life-support-2018-5">rich targets</a> for future astronaut missions).</p><p>Back on the surface, InSight will also use a sensitive radio <keyword id="41551" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="100" keywordseo="science">science</keyword> experiment to see how subtly Mars wobbles during its orbit around the sun, which takes about two Earth years. This data should tell researchers what is going on in the deepest parts of the planet's core.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5bf58adab73c28218c50890d-2400/nasa-mars-insight-robotic-probe-mission-press-briefing-bruce-banerdt-nhq201810310005orig.jpg" border="0" alt="nasa mars insight robotic probe mission press briefing bruce banerdt NHQ201810310005_orig" data-mce-source="NASA/Bill Ingalls" data-mce-caption="The lead scientists on the InSight mission to Mars, Bruce Banerdt, speaks during a press conference on October 31, 2018." data-link="https://images.nasa.gov/details-NHQ201810310005.html" /><p class="source"><span><a href="https://images.nasa.gov/details-NHQ201810310005.html">NASA/Bill Ingalls</a></span></p><p class="caption">The lead scientist on the InSight mission to Mars, Bruce Banerdt, speaks during a press conference on October 31, 2018.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>In probing Mars' history, scientists think we're bound to learn about our own planet's origins.</p><p>"Earth ... is a big planet that holds a lot of heat, a lot of energy, and it's been very geologically active over its entire history. So most of the record of the early processes that formed the Earth have been erased," <a href="https://mars.nasa.gov/people/info.cfm?id=22920" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tom Hoffman</a>, the InSight mission's payload manager, said during NASA's October press briefing. "We'd like to have a planet that's just a little bit calmer and that can retain that that evidence."</p><p>This makes sedate Mars, which is similar to Earth but has remained almost frozen in time, the perfect place to go looking.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-mars-landing-super-hard-insight-curiosity-mars2020-2018-11">Why Mars is the hardest planet to land on in our solar system</a></h3>        <div>            <iframe class="bijwplayerclass" data-player="jwplayer" src="https://content.jwplatform.com/players/60tDgdHh-CEZHWCBG.html" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" scrolling="auto" style="margin:0px;" allowfullscreen=""></iframe><script>function receiveMessage(event){ console.log(event.data.fullscreen); Android.fullscreen(event.data.fullscreen); }window.addEventListener("message", receiveMessage, false);</script>        </div>    </div>

NASA's new Mars mission just landed - and it could reveal why Earth is habitable but the red planet is not

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table full"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/572b2468dd089581158b4847-4611-2689/nasa mars.jpg" alt="nasa mars" data-mce-source="NASA" data-link="http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_261.html" /><p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_261.html">NASA</a></span></p></div><p></p></div></div>WASHINGTON, D.C. - In sharp contrast to the cynical outlook that politicians, lobbyists, and reporters generally have about space travel in this city, the tone inside the <a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/future-is-here/?no-ist">Smithsonian's Future Is Here Festival</a> on April 24 was unabashedly optimistic.</p><p>There, NASA officials shared their detailed plans to land humans on Mars as soon as 15 years from now.</p><p>The space agency has mulled launching a crewed Mars mission for decades. In fact, President <a href="http://www.techinsider.io/john-f-kennedy-wanted-mars-instead-moon-2016-3">Kennedy originally wanted astronauts to visit the Red Planet</a> instead of the moon. So today it feels like we may never reach Mars, as many science fiction stories have teased and NASA has failed to deliver.</p><p>But the space agency seems serious this time. President <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/news/media/trans/obama_ksc_trans.html">Obama challenged NASA</a> to get astronauts to Mars in the 2030s. And while other presidents have done the same since the Apollo missions returned from the moon, NASA says that it's finally ready for its Mars shot.</p><p>"We're closer than we've ever been to humans stepping on Mars," NASA's deputy administrator, <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/newman_bio.html">Dava Newman</a>, said at the conference.</p><p>NASA released its 36-page "<a href="http://www.techinsider.io/nasa-journey-to-mars-plan-2015-10">Journey to Mars</a>" report in <a href="http://www.techinsider.io/latest-nasa-report-on-journey-to-mars-2015-10">October 2015</a> to outline broad goals, but its <a href="http://www.techinsider.io/nasa-journey-to-mars-plan-2015-10">lack of clear deadlines</a> generated fierce opposition.</p><p>"This sounds good, but it is actually a journey to nowhere until we have that budget and we have the schedule and we have the deadlines," Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) said during a congressional <a href="https://science.house.gov/news/press-releases/hearing-examines-impact-president-s-budget-deep-space-exploration">hearing</a> after the report was released.</p><p>Newman and other NASA administrators shared new details at the Smithsonian conference, though, filling in some of the blanks to respond to Smith's and others' criticisms.</p><p>Here's how the agency plans to get humans on Mars within our lifetimes.</p><h2>The plan</h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/572b2468dd089581158b4848-960-720/nasa journey mars.png" alt="nasa journey mars" data-mce-source="NASA" data-link="http://www.nasa.gov/content/nasas-orion-flight-test-and-the-journey-to-mars" /><p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.nasa.gov/content/nasas-orion-flight-test-and-the-journey-to-mars">NASA</a></span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>NASA and <a href="http://www.lockheedmartin.com/us/ssc/orion-eft1.html">Lockheed Martin</a> have already built the spacecraft that will take humans to Mars, called <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/exploration/systems/orion/about/index.html">Orion</a>. But it has to go through a few more tests before that happens.</p><p>All of the missions in the next two decades are building up to be able to land humans on Mars in the 2030s.</p><p>Newman said the journey is divided into three phases: Earth-dependent, proving ground, and Earth-independent.</p><h3>Earth-dependent (today)</h3><p>NASA will continue to test the effects of space on the human body and conduct experiments aboard the International Space Station (ISS).</p><p>Astronaut <a href="http://www.techinsider.io/scott-kelly-lands-safely-after-year-in-space-2016-3">Scott Kelly's year in space</a> was a big part of this phase, since they'll compare what he went through with his twin brother who stayed on the ground.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table full"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/572b2468dd089581158b4849-1280-720/suns_out.jpg" alt="orion delta iv" data-mce-source="NASA" data-link="https://www.nasa.gov/exploration/systems/orion/gallery/index.html?id=351901" /><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.nasa.gov/exploration/systems/orion/gallery/index.html?id=351901">NASA</a></span></p><p class="caption">The Orion spacecraft awaits liftoff during its 2014 flight test aboard a Delta IV rocket.</p></div><p></p></div></div>In 2018, <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/feature/the-ins-and-outs-of-nasa-s-first-launch-of-sls-and-orion">NASA plans to launch Orion</a> into orbit atop a new Statue of Liberty-size rocket, called the Space Launch System (SLS). The goal is to see if SLS works and how well Orion holds up to radiation in space. The spacecraft will be uncrewed and the mission will last about three weeks.</p><p>The space agency <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/files/JSC_OrionEFT-1_PressKit_accessible.pdf">already tested Orion in a shorter mission</a> in 2014, which was a success, but this next mission will go near the Moon and back, subjecting the spacecraft to harsher conditions.</p><h3>Proving ground (2020s)</h3><p>The first crewed Orion mission is <a href="http://www.space.com/30560-nasa-orion-space-capsule-crewed-launch-delay.html">scheduled for 2023</a>, when four astronauts will get test the spacecraft themselves.</p><p>To give them something important to do, NASA is launching an <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/osiris-rex/about">uncrewed mission called OSIRIS-REx to a nearby asteroid</a>. The spacecraft should arrive and grab a sample by 2018, then come back near Earth by 2023 so the astronauts can go study the rock. This mission will help NASA figure out how humans and robots can work together on deep space missions like they'll have to on Mars, Newman said.</p><p>During the 2020s, NASA also plans to test deep space habitats, possibly on the moon, to experiment with how they'll have to design habitats for the surface of Mars.</p><p>And the agency plans to retire the ISS in <a href="https://oig.nasa.gov/audits/reports/FY14/IG-14-031.pdf">2024</a>, Newman said, ending over two decades of unprecedented research and global collaboration. ("Retire" sounds nice, but it likely means <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/pdf/578543main_asap_eol_plan_2010_101020.pdf">crashing the space station into the ocean</a>.)</p><p>It's around this time - the mid-2020s - when NASA's plans start to get a little fuzzier and less concrete.</p><h3>Earth-independent (2030s)</h3><p>To the critics' lament, plans get even more speculative in the 2030s.</p><p>NASA wants to launch a crewed, round-trip mission to Mars aboard Orion - but that's about all the details the agency has confirmed so far.</p><p>Newman emphasized the importance of "round-trip:" They're going to bring the astronauts back to Earth. This mission will take three years to complete, and will hopefully be the first of many before we set up a permanent colony on Mars.</p><p>But NASA has a lot to figure out before we get to that point.</p><h2>The challenges</h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table full"><div><div class="image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/572b2468dd089581158b484a-/space_8.gif" alt="space_8" data-mce-source="Skye Gould/Tech Insider" /></div></div></div></p><h3>Keeping astronauts safe</h3><p>When humans leave the protective shielding that Earth provides, we are highly susceptible to the dangers of space. We evolved on Earth, after all - we're not built for interplanetary travel.</p><p>One of the biggest concerns NASA has with sending astronauts on deep space mission is the dose of radiation they'll receive out there.</p><p>High energy particles from the sun, called coronal mass ejections, and those from outside the solar system, called cosmic rays, can bombard spacecraft with powerful radiation. In turn, this can increase the risk of cancer for the astronauts inside.</p><p>NASA currently <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/files/1_NAC_HEO_SMD_Committee_Mars_Radiation_Intro_2015April7_Final_TAGGED.pdf">sets a limit for the increase in risk</a> that astronauts would develop and die from cancer, and our current technology wouldn't be able to keep astronauts below that dose on a round-trip to Mars. Our spacecraft will need better shielding, or we'll have to develop drugs to keep this risk at bay, or both.</p><p>But an increased cancer risk is just one of the many health problems that can happen in space. <a href="http://www.techinsider.io/heres-what-happens-to-your-body-in-space-2016-3">Prolonged space travel can</a> also make humans lose bone density and muscle mass, and it may affect their eyesight. Mental health could also <a href="http://www.popularmechanics.com/space/moon-mars/a8591/5-things-russias-fake-mars-mission-says-about-space-travel-and-office-life-14954479/">be an issue</a> in a confined spacecraft.</p><p>The technical challenges of launching and landing rockets on Mars are one thing - making sure the astronauts stay healthy enough to complete their mission and come home is a whole other.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container full"><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/572b2468dd089581158b484b-670-380/dava newman spacesuit.jpg" alt="dava newman spacesuit" width="800" height="454" data-mce-source="NASA" data-mce-caption="Dava Newman models the spacesuit she designed for astronauts to use on the surface of Mars." data-link="http://appel.nasa.gov/2012/01/11/building-the-future-spacesuit/" /><p class="source"><span><a href="http://appel.nasa.gov/2012/01/11/building-the-future-spacesuit/">NASA</a></span></p><p class="caption">Dava Newman models the spacesuit she designed for astronauts to use on the surface of Mars.</p></div><p></p></div></p><h3>Securing money</h3><p>Convincing Congress to fund far-off missions that lack concrete deadlines is always a struggle, but it's especially tough when that money is for space travel.</p><p>NASA has experienced its share of <a href="http://spacenews.com/nasa-cuts-funds-for-mars-landing-technology-work/">budget cuts</a> in recent years, and the future of funding - particularly with the 2016 election looming - is unclear.</p><p>Some NASA and space experts say we could put humans on Mars <a href="http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/02/space-experts-warn-congress-that-nasas-journey-to-mars-is-illusory/">within existing budgets</a>. But to truly make this ambitious plan a reality, the agency will <a href="http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2726/1">likely need an influx of cash</a>, particularly in the years when astronauts actually reach the Red Planet.</p><p>NASA could also partner with ambitious companies planning their own Mars landings, <a href="http://www.techinsider.io/nasa-spacex-mars-2018-mission-2016-4">like SpaceX</a>. The agency is <a href="http://www.techinsider.io/nasa-has-always-contracted-companies-like-spacex-2016-4">increasingly working with industry</a> in a way that is hugely beneficial to both parties, so this could be an economical option.</p><p>Like many basic science endeavors, we don't yet know what knowledge we can gain by going to Mars. Did we foresee all the developments in flight systems, communications, and computers that the moon landings, or the shuttle missions, were going to yield? Of course not.</p><p>Giving NASA money always takes a bit of faith. We don't know what exploring the universe can teach us.</p><p>"We're following our curiosity. ... We don't know where it will take us, but it will bring change, and that itself keeps us alive," NASA engineer <a href="https://twitter.com/steltzner?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor">Adam Steltzner</a> said at the conference, who led the team that developed the landing system for the Mars Curiosity rover. "The curiosity is in our genes."</p><h2>The inspiration</h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table full"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/572b2468dd089581158b484c-1280-636/evolution of a martian nasa.jpg" alt="evolution of a martian nasa" data-mce-source="NASA" data-link="https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/evolution-of-a-martian_np-2015-09-648-larc.pdf" /><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/evolution-of-a-martian_np-2015-09-648-larc.pdf">NASA</a></span></p><p class="caption">First rovers, then humans.</p></div><p></p></div></div>Former NASA astronaut <a href="http://www.lockheedmartin.com/us/news/features/2015/astronauts-space-1215.html">Tony Antonelli</a> has asked schoolchildren if they think we're going to land humans on Mars soon. To them, it's not a question - it's a given.</p><p>Kids may be the only ones who are as optimistic about these missions as NASA administrators are. They know we'll get "boots on the ground" on Mars within their lifetimes. Some of them might even be the astronauts who make it there.</p><p>The rest of the general public is another story. Importantly for NASA, they're the ones who need convincing to drive that final push to get us there, said Antonelli, who's now the chief technologist of exploration systems for Lockheed Martin's civil line of space systems.</p><p>"We will not go until the American people and the international community are ready and decide that it is a priority," he told Tech Insider. "I really think what we're missing is a sense of urgency, a sense of purpose, and just pushing out and doing it."</p><p>Little kids know it will happen. NASA and its partners are ready to go. Now the public has to get on board to convince their representatives in Washington, too.</p><p>"We have nearly enough information to be able to support humans going to Mars," NASA's Planetary Science Director <a href="http://science.nasa.gov/about-us/organization-and-leadership/division-bios/dr-jim-green/">Jim Green</a> said at the festival. "It's not a matter of if. It's a matter of when."</p><p>Are you ready?</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-most-powerful-rocket-mars-2016-2">This is NASA's most powerful rocket in history-and it's going to Mars</a></h3>        <div>            <div>    <script src="http://player.ooyala.com/v3/6e12e8b3387a44daacfb73afba25a76e"></script>    <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="s4M3JtMDE6ABi5yWTH7EGeryUe4BIiuP" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>    <script>    if (typeof RunFunctions === 'undefined') { var RunFunctions = []; }     RunFunctions.push(function()    {         var ooyalapopvideo = OO.Player.create('ooyalaplayer_popvideo', 's4M3JtMDE6ABi5yWTH7EGeryUe4BIiuP',{ autoplay: 'false' });     });    </script>    <noscript><div>Please enable Javascript to watch this video</div></noscript></div>        </div>        <script>(function() { function createPlayer() { OO.ready(function() { RunFunctions.forEach(function(ooyalaFunction) { ooyalaFunction(); }); RunFunctions = [];}); } createPlayer(); }()); </script>    </div>

This is NASA's audacious plan to land humans on Mars within your lifetime

NASA's future missions to Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and beyond could hit a nuclear roadblock within the next decade

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5bf5a7ed66be50086c3d368d-1246/nasa-mars-insight-robotic-probe-landing-mission-animation-lockheed-martin-00004.png" border="0" alt="nasa mars insight robotic probe landing mission animation lockheed martin 00004" data-mce-source="Lockheed Martin/YouTube" data-mce-caption="An animation of NASA's InSight probe attempting to land on the surface of Mars." data-link="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0lwFLPiZEE" /><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0lwFLPiZEE">Lockheed Martin/YouTube</a></span></p><p class="caption">An illustration of NASA's InSight probe attempting to land on the surface of Mars</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul class="summary-list"><li><strong>NASA will try to land its <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/nasa-insight-lander" target="_blank" rel="noopener">InSight probe</a> on the surface of the red planet around 3 p.m. ET on Monday.</strong></li><li><strong>The robotic lander must survive "seven minutes of terror" before touching down and beginning a series of unprecedented scientific firsts.</strong></li><li><strong>InSight won't move around <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/mars" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mars</a>, but it could be the first mission to measure the "vital signs" of the planet and decode its internal structure.</strong></li><li><strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/nasa" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NASA</a> will also listen for "marsquakes" caused by meteorite impacts and tectonic movements, which could reveal the interior structure of the 4.6-billion-year-old world.</strong></li></ul><p>On Cyber Monday, while online shoppers hunt for deals, NASA will be trying to stick its first landing of a robot on the surface of Mars in six years.</p><p>The roughly $830-million mission is called <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-insight-lander-2018-3">InSight</a>, which is short for "Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport."</p><p>NASA <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/photos-video-show-blast-off-as-nasa-insight-probe-launches-to-mars-2018-5">rocketed</a> the InSight probe toward the red planet on May 5. The lander, which weighs about 789 lbs, is expected to complete a risky descent sequence around 3 p.m. ET on Monday, November 26. Part of that process is known as the "seven minutes of terror."</p><p>If all goes well, the golf-cart-size lander will be the first robot to touch down on Martian soil since NASA's <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nuclear-powered-spacecraft-nasa-history-2017-3">nuclear-powered</a> Curiosity rover, which landed there in August 2012.</p><p><em><strong>Read more</strong>: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mars-facts-statistics-2017-5">13 incredible facts you probably didn't know about the red planet</a></em></p><p>Scientists hope that InSight's two-year mission will probe Mars in ways they've only dreamed of until now.</p><p>"All of our past missions have really been surface missions," <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/braun_bio.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Robert Braun</a>, NASA's former chief technologist, told Business Insider. "InSight's a very different mission in the sense that it is peering into the past by studying, really, the interior of Mars. In doing so, we're going to learn about Mars, but also about the early history of the Earth."</p><p>First, however, InSight will have to get safely to the surface.</p><h2>How InSight might survive '7 minutes of terror'</h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5bf58ad801b12d23e7695e18-2400/nasa-mars-insight-robotic-probe-landing-mission-seven-minutes-terror-illustration-pia22100orig.jpg" border="0" alt="nasa mars insight robotic probe landing mission seven minutes terror illustration PIA22100_orig" data-mce-source="NASA/JPL-Caltech" data-mce-caption="An illustration of NASA's InSight Mars probe in the &amp;quotseven minutes of terror&quot; phase of its descent to the Martian surface." data-link="https://images.nasa.gov/details-PIA22100.html" /><p class="source"><span><a href="https://images.nasa.gov/details-PIA22100.html">NASA/JPL-Caltech</a></span></p><p class="caption">An illustration of NASA's InSight Mars probe in the "seven minutes of terror" phase of its descent to the Martian surface.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Getting to Mars is relatively easy.</p><p>That's because modern rockets are safer and more reliable to launch than ever before. In fact, the vehicle that sent InSight toward Mars - an Atlas V rocket built by United Launch Alliance - has had only one partial failure since its debut in 2002.</p><p>Landing on the red planet, however, is one of the most challenging tasks an aerospace engineer can accomplish. About a third of robots sent there never make it.</p><p>"Although we've done it before, landing on Mars is hard, and this mission is no different," Rob Manning, the chief engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDSbUpmRksI" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a video</a>. "It takes thousands of steps to go from the top of the atmosphere to the surface, and each one of them has to work perfectly."</p><p>The <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mars-facts-statistics-2017-5">Martian atmosphere is about 1% as thick as Earth's</a>. But that's still plenty of air to completely destroy a spacecraft like InSight, which will be moving at about 12,500 mph when it arrives at the red planet.</p><p>NASA tries to take advantage of the Martian atmosphere by putting its robots in an entry capsule with a heat shield. This helps reduce the spacecraft's speed while also protecting it from 1,400-degree-Celsius temperatures - hot enough to melt steel - caused by plowing through the thin Martian air.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5bf5a293101142395b50647c-1614/nasa-mars-insight-robotic-probe-landing-mission-animation-lockheed-martin-00001.png" border="0" alt="nasa mars insight robotic probe landing mission animation lockheed martin 00001" data-mce-source="Lockheed Martin/YouTube" data-mce-caption="An animation of NASA's InSight probe attempting to land on the surface of Mars." data-link="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0lwFLPiZEE" /><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0lwFLPiZEE">Lockheed Martin/YouTube</a></span></p><p class="caption">An animation of NASA's InSight probe attempting to land on the surface of Mars.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>However, striking the atmosphere at anything other than the perfect angle - about 12 degrees, Manning said - can end a mission. Any shallower than this, and an entry capsule will "skip" off the atmosphere and out into deep space. Any deeper, and a robot gets vaporized.</p><p>This phase - when an entry capsule detaches from its mothership and descends - is sometimes called the seven minutes of terror. This is because NASA can't "hear" from its spacecraft for roughly seven minutes, and won't know if a landing has succeeded or failed until a radio signal arrives (or doesn't).</p><p>This time around, though, NASA is trying something new: It sent two briefcase-size satellites called MarsCubeOne with Insight. Both cubesats are <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/planet-mars-image-nasa-marco-cubesat-2018-10">trailing the lander en route to Mars</a>, and they'll help relay landing data home.</p><p>"They'll be broadcasting that back to Earth so we know what's exactly happening at each step of the entry, descent, and landing process," <a href="https://mars.nasa.gov/people/info.cfm?id=22920" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tom Hoffman</a>, the InSight mission's payload manager, said during a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bz4f7zlGETI" target="_blank" rel="noopener">press briefing</a> in October.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5afb2b3a1ae6621a008b4586-1930/mars-cubesat-one-satellite-insight-nasa-jpl-caltech.jpg" border="0" alt="mars cubesat one satellite insight nasa jpl caltech" data-mce-source="NASA/JPL-Caltech" data-mce-caption="An engineer tests the solar arrays of NASA's Mars Cube One satellite, or MarCO." data-link="https://images.nasa.gov/details-PIA22318.html" /><p class="source"><span><a href="https://images.nasa.gov/details-PIA22318.html">NASA/JPL-Caltech</a></span></p><p class="caption">An engineer tests the solar arrays of NASA's Mars Cube One satellite, or MarCO.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Once InSight plows through enough of the Martian atmosphere to not burn up, its entry capsule will deploy a big supersonic parachute, then discard the heat shield seconds later.</p><p>InSight's dangerous journey isn't over at this point. The robot still has to deploy three landing legs and use radar to calculate how close it is to the ground - NASA can't control the robot remotely in real time because it takes light (and radio signals) about 15 minutes to travel to and from Mars.</p><p>About a mile above the surface of Mars, InSight will drop out of its protective capsule, fire its retro-rocket engines, and try to touch down without crashing or tipping over.</p><h2>How InSight will probe the ancient secrets of Mars - and Earth</h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5bf58adbe4218a21e025c105-2400/mars-rocky-planet-hot-molten-core-interior-cutaway-illustration-nasa-pia16078orig.jpg" border="0" alt="mars rocky planet hot molten core interior cutaway illustration nasa PIA16078_orig" data-mce-source="NASA/JPL" data-mce-caption="A cutaway illustration showing what scientists think the interior of planet Mars might look like." data-link="https://images.nasa.gov/details-PIA16078.html" /><p class="source"><span><a href="https://images.nasa.gov/details-PIA16078.html">NASA/JPL</a></span></p><p class="caption">A cutaway illustration showing what scientists think the interior of planet Mars might look like.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>InSight will try to land in a region known as <a href="https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/timeline/prelaunch/landing-site-selection/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Elysium Planitia</a>, which is a relatively flat place close to the Martian equator. If the robot safely lands and unfurls its two circular solar panels, NASA will begin its mission in earnest.</p><p>Like InSight's nearly identical predecessor mission, the Phoenix Mars Lander, the probe won't move locations. But unlike Phoenix, which dug for water in Martian soil for a few months in 2008, InSight hopes to last for two Earth years.</p><p>During that time, it will perform the first "<a href="https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/mission/science/overview/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">checkup</a>" of the 4.6-billion-year-old planet.</p><p>"InSight's goal is to study the interior of Mars and take the planet's vital signs, its pulse, and temperature," NASA said on its mission <a href="https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/timeline/landing/summary/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">website</a>. "To look deep into Mars, the lander must be at a place where it can stay still and quiet for its entire mission. That's why scientists chose Elysium Planitia as InSight's home."</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5bf5ad4fe4218a27014a0eb5-1280/elysia-planitia-insight-mars-lander-site-map-nasa.png" border="0" alt="elysia planitia insight mars lander site map nasa" data-mce-source="NASA; Business Insider" data-mce-caption="NASA plans to land its InSight robot at Elysium Planitia near the Martian equator." data-link="https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/timeline/prelaunch/landing-site-selection/" /><p class="source"><span><a href="https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/timeline/prelaunch/landing-site-selection/">NASA; Business Insider</a></span></p><p class="caption">NASA plans to land its InSight robot at Elysium Planitia near the Martian equator.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Once InSight is powered up and in communication with Earth, one of its first tasks will be to unfurl a robotic arm.</p><p>InSight will use that robotic appendage to place a dome down on the Martian surface. The dome will contain six extremely sensitive vibration-detection devices called seismometers.</p><p>Seismometers on the Earth and the moon (<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/apollo-moon-landing-photos-nasa-1969-2018-7">Apollo astronauts deployed some on the lunar surface</a>) have recorded earthquakes and moonquakes, which helped scientists figure out the internal structure of those rocky worlds. On Mars, NASA researchers hope to accomplish a similar feat.</p><p>Whenever a meteorite strikes Mars, or there's a landslide, or a big blob of magma suddenly shifts, or there's tectonic movement, InSight's seismometer should detect such vibrations. The devices can even record seismic activity from all the way across the planet.</p><p>Over time, data about marsquakes could reveal hitherto unknown information about the internal structure of the planet.</p><p>One of the most challenging tasks InSight will attempt, though, is drilling a heat probe deep into the ground. The probe will slowly drill down and stop every so often to heat up. Then a sensor will detect how long it takes that warmth to dissipate.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5bf487ca1011422418009513-2250/webpnet-resizeimage.jpg" border="0" alt="NASA InSight Mars lander" style="color: #000000;" data-mce-source="NASA/JPL-Caltech" data-mce-caption="An artist illustration of the InSight lander on Mars." /><p class="source"><span>NASA/JPL-Caltech</span></p><p class="caption">An artist illustration of the InSight lander on Mars.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>The probe is expected to dig 16 feet down - far deeper than any previous Mars mission has ever reached with scoops, shovels, or drills.</p><p>"When we get down that deep, we'll get away from all of the temperature variations of the surface," Suzanne Smrekar, the mission's deputy principle investigator, said during a press briefing. "That tells us about the heat coming out of the planet - that energy that's available for driving geologic activity."</p><p>Back on the surface, InSight will also use a sensitive radio <keyword id="41551" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="100" keywordseo="science">science</keyword> experiment to see how subtly Mars shifts during its two-Earth-year-long orbit around the sun. Such data should tell researchers what is going on in the deepest parts of the planet's core.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5bf58adab73c28218c50890d-2400/nasa-mars-insight-robotic-probe-mission-press-briefing-bruce-banerdt-nhq201810310005orig.jpg" border="0" alt="nasa mars insight robotic probe mission press briefing bruce banerdt NHQ201810310005_orig" data-mce-source="NASA/Bill Ingalls" data-mce-caption="The lead scientists on the InSight mission to Mars, Bruce Banerdt, speaks during a press conference on October 31, 2018." data-link="https://images.nasa.gov/details-NHQ201810310005.html" /><p class="source"><span><a href="https://images.nasa.gov/details-NHQ201810310005.html">NASA/Bill Ingalls</a></span></p><p class="caption">The lead scientists on the InSight mission to Mars, Bruce Banerdt, speaks during a press conference on October 31, 2018.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>The ultimate goal is to figure out how Mars formed and what happened to the planet since then. Scientists know that Mars once generated an atmosphere-protecting magnetic dynamo, as Earth still does today. But the Martian core's dynamo eventually shut down and the planet's protective shield faded, which allowed the sun to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-mars-lost-water-atmosphere-solar-wind-2015-11">blow away Mars' atmosphere</a> and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mars-ocean-mega-tsunami-surface-2016-5">oceans of water</a>.</p><p>In probing that history, scientists think we're bound to learn about our own planet's origins.</p><p>"Earth ... is a big planet that holds a lot of heat, a lot of energy, and it's been very geologically active over its entire history. So most of the record of the early processes that formed the Earth have been erased," Hoffman said. "We'd like to have a planet that's just a little bit calmer and that can retain that that evidence."</p><p>Mars, which is similar to Earth but has remained almost frozen in time, is thus the perfect place to go looking.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/what-humans-look-like-on-mars-2018-5">What humans will look like on Mars</a></h3>        <div>            <iframe class="bijwplayerclass" data-player="jwplayer" src="https://content.jwplatform.com/players/RCCtKqCn-CEZHWCBG.html" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" scrolling="auto" style="margin:0px;" allowfullscreen=""></iframe><script>function receiveMessage(event){ console.log(event.data.fullscreen); Android.fullscreen(event.data.fullscreen); }window.addEventListener("message", receiveMessage, false);</script>        </div>    </div>

NASA's InSight robot is about to land on Mars. Here's how it might survive '7 minutes of terror' and make incredible discoveries about the red planet - and Earth, too.

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Harvard physicist Avi Loeb announced the discovery of tiny "spherules" at the bottom of the Pacific.</li><li>He said these spherules may be from an alien technology outside of our solar system.</li></ul><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/aliens-ufo-harvard-expert-avi-loeb-meteor-spaceship-science-astrophysics-2023-7">Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb</a> announced that he and his team discovered fragments of material at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean that may potentially be linked to aliens.</p><p>The fragments "could be a spacecraft from another civilization, or some technological gadget," Loeb told <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/avi-loeb-harvard-professor-alien-technology-fragments-us/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CBS News</a>.</p><p>But experts who have been searching for alien life for many years told Insider they aren't sold on the idea that <a href="https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/ac8eac/pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Loeb's findings</a> represent evidence of alien intelligence.</p><p>"I like wild and crazy ideas — they make us all think — occasionally one of them might be right. But I'm extremely skeptical about this one," said <a href="https://seti.berkeley.edu/people/Dan.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dan Werthimer</a>, chief technologist of the SETI Research Center at the University of California, Berkeley.</p><h2>'A lot of unknowns' in the data</h2><p>Loeb's team found 50 sub-millimeter-sized "spherules" that he said he thinks came from an interstellar meteoroid, which he named IM1, that crashed into waters near Papua New Guinea in 2014.</p><p>Both the speed of the meteor and the composition of the spherules is why Loeb thinks they may be of possible alien origin. But experts aren't convinced.</p><p>"As I look at the data, there are just a lot of unknowns," said <a href="http://meti.org/en/board/douglas-vakoch" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Douglas Vakoch</a>, president of <a href="http://meti.org/en" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence (METI)</a>, an organization that searches for signs of extraterrestrial life by transmitting intentional signals to nearby stars.</p><h2><div type="image" title="allen telescope array ata seti institute" height="987" width="1484" msid="102041992" hostid="261" sizebytes="97790"></div></h2><h2>The meteroid's speed was calculated from incomplete data, experts said</h2><p>Loeb proposed that the meteor IM1 was of interstellar origin in a <a href="https://arxiv.org/pdf/1904.07224.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">paper</a> he published in 2019. To estimate its speed, he and a student used data from the Center for Near Earth Object Studies, which tracks the speed and trajectory of objects in space that travel close to, and occasionally hit, Earth.</p><p>Loeb wrote in a first-hand account on <a href="https://avi-loeb.medium.com/summary-of-the-successful-interstellar-expedition-61ff4467070d" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Medium</a>:</p><p>"[The data] showed that IM1 was moving outside the solar system faster than 95% of all stars in the vicinity of the Sun. The possibility that IM1's excess speed benefited from propulsion and the fact that it was tougher than all known space rocks, raise the possibility that it may have been technological in origin."</p><p>Bu Werthimer pointed out that the radar used to detect the meteor is known to make mistakes on the <a href="https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/483/4/5166/5256650" target="_blank" rel="noopener">speed of meteors</a> that come in at a shallow angle — like this one did — compared to other instruments.</p><p>That said, US Space Command followed up on Loeb's calculations and, in 2022, issued a <a href="https://lweb.cfa.harvard.edu/~loeb/DoD.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">formal letter</a> to NASA confirming IM1's interstellar origin with 99.999% confidence.</p><p>"The velocity estimate reported to NASA is sufficiently accurate to indicate an interstellar trajectory," the letter stated.</p><p>But it doesn't matter what any government official tells you — the DOD statement has no standing in the scientific community, Vakoch said, echoing the <a href="https://gizmodo.com/interstellar-meteor-2014-scientists-skeptical-1848782995" target="_blank" rel="noopener">concerns of some astrophysicists</a>.</p><h2>The composition of the spherules could mean something totally different</h2><p>Let's forget about the meteor for a second. What about those peculiar spherule fragments?</p><p>Loeb wrote in Medium that "based on the measured abundance of U238, Pb206, U235 and Pb207," in two of the collected spherules, their age was closer to the age of the universe than the age of our solar system.</p><p>"In the coming weeks we will examine further any clue for the spherules being different from solar system materials. This will constitute independent evidence for the interstellar origin of IM1 in addition to its measured speed," Loeb wrote.</p><p>Some experts are still skeptical. <a href="https://www.open.ac.uk/people/mmg67" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Monica Grady</a>, professor of planetary and space sciences at The Open University, wrote in <a href="https://theconversation.com/physicist-who-found-spherical-meteor-fragments-claims-they-may-come-from-an-alien-spaceship-heres-what-to-make-of-it-209101" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a> that spherules from space have been found at the bottom of the ocean as far back as 1872 by the HMS Challenger.</p><p>Nowadays, it can be difficult to tell the difference between spherules and products of industrial pollution.</p><p>Vakoch agreed, saying that, "I don't see anything in the reports of these metallic spheroids that suggests anything close to them being an alien technology, or even necessarily something from outside our solar system."</p><p>Loeb said that early reports of the spherules' chemical composition were from a small sample and not representative of the full collection. Moreover, "the X-ray Fluorescence analyzer used on the ship was blind to some elements," he told Insider over email.</p><p>Now that he's back on land, he said the team has shared the materials with three leading labs that "include world experts with state-of-the-art diagnostic instruments, such as X-ray fluorescence analyzers, mass spectrometers, and scanning electron microscopes," to analyze the spherules' composition in more detail.</p><p>Loeb told Insider that, when ready, the team will publish their findings in a scientific paper that will be "shared openly and submitted for a peer-reviewed journal."</p><p>In the meantime, experts will likely remain skeptical until more concrete proof presents itself.</p><p>"I'm very optimistic about life in the universe — I think it's likely to be teeming with life — but this is not evidence for it," Werthimier said.</p>

The world's top alien hunters explain why a Harvard physicist's discovery of 'alien' tech is likely a false alarm

<p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/574dbbaadd0895e30b8b46b5-939/stem_students_react_to_generation_beyond_mars_experience_bus___lockheed_martin:youtube.jpg" alt="STEM_Students_React_to_Generation_Beyond_Mars_Experience_Bus___Lockheed_Martin:YouTube" data-mce-source="Lockheed Martin/YouTube" data-link="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssk5mn19cpM"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssk5mn19cpM">Lockheed Martin/YouTube</a></span></p><p class="caption">All aboard then off to Mars.</p></img></div><p></p></div></div>OK, so full disclosure that <a href="https://www.generation-beyond.com/mars-experience">this video</a> is a PR stunt by rocket manufacturer Lockheed Martin (the company <a href="http://www.techinsider.io/nasa-mars-mission-with-humans-plan-2016-4">NASA has contracted</a> to build its spacecraft to Mars).<p>But it looks like the&#xa0;kids who participated still had a pretty cool&#xa0;experience.</p><p>Lockheed Martin loaded some students onto a school bus, and took them to Mars (sort of).</p><p>The windows turned into virtual reality screens of the Red Planet. When the bus made a turn, the screens made it look like the bus was making a turn on Mars.&#xa0;</p><p>Watch how excited the kids were:</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/574dbbaadd0895e30b8b46b6-/giphy%20(17).gif" alt="mars bus" width="800" height="450" data-mce-source="Lockheed Martin/YouTube" data-link="http://giphy.com/gifs/vipLUBYCh8QzC" /></div></div><p>The idea behind the stunt was to communicate an exciting point: Children in school today could be the first humans to step foot on Mars. <a href="http://www.techinsider.io/nasa-mars-mission-with-humans-plan-2016-4">NASA plans</a> to get "boots on the ground" in the next 30 years.</p><p>But as former NASA astronaut <a href="http://www.lockheedmartin.com/us/news/features/2015/astronauts-space-1215.html">Tony Antonelli</a>, who's now the chief technologist of exploration systems for Lockheed Martin's civil line of space systems, told Tech Insider, there's not a sense of urgency to get to Mars, and the American people aren't convinced that it will happen.</p><p>"You talk to school kids, though, and say, 'Hey are we going to explore Mars?' It's not a tricky question for them. It's an easy question," he said. "They know that humans are going to explore Mars. I feel the pressure that I want to make sure that we've done everything we can to enable that. I also haven't given up. I want to see it happen."</p><p>Check out the full video:</p><p><div><iframe width="800" height="450" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/ssk5mn19cpM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></div></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mars-coming-out-of-ice-age-rover-space-nasa-2016-5">Mars could be going through a major climate shift right now</a></h3>        <div>            <div>    <script src="http://player.ooyala.com/v3/6e12e8b3387a44daacfb73afba25a76e"></script>    <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="kxcDRyMzE64olsUjzoz-JsTYIvAQcQRm" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>    <script>    if (typeof RunFunctions === 'undefined') { var RunFunctions = []; }     RunFunctions.push(function()    {         var ooyalapopvideo = OO.Player.create('ooyalaplayer_popvideo', 'kxcDRyMzE64olsUjzoz-JsTYIvAQcQRm',{ autoplay: 'false' });     });    </script>    <noscript><div>Please enable Javascript to watch this video</div></noscript></div>        </div>        <script>(function() { function createPlayer() { OO.ready(function() { RunFunctions.forEach(function(ooyalaFunction) { ooyalaFunction(); }); RunFunctions = [];}); } createPlayer(); }()); </script>    </div>

Watch kids react as a magical school bus takes them to 'Mars'

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/55e8d2bebd86ef1f008b8126-673-505/pat-gelsinger2.jpg" alt="VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger" data-mce-source="VMware" /><p class="source"><span>VMware</span></p><p class="caption">VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger</p></div><p></p></div></div>VMware announced on Tuesday that its <span>President and COO <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/vmwares-top-execs-are-heading-for-the-door-ahead-of-emc-dell-merger-2016-3">Carl Eschenbach is leaving the company</a></span><span>.</span></p><p><span>The news came as a bit of a surprise given <span>Eschenbach was effectively the #2 guy behind CEO Pat Gelsinger.</span></span></p><p><span><span>But a closer look at VMware shows the top-level exodus has been quietly going on for a while, and <span>Eschenbach is just the latest in a series of recent executive departures at the company.</span></span></span></p><p>Here's a quick run-down of its recent executive departures, based on LinkedIn profiles:</p><p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><span><strong>Jonathan Chadwick, CFO:</strong> Announced resignation last month</span></span></p><p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><span><strong>Ben Fathi, CTO:</strong> Left in September 2015 to join CloudFlare as Head of Engineering</span></span></p><p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Charles Fan, SVP and GM VSAN:</strong> Left in February 2016 to join Cheetah Mobile as CTO</span></p><p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Riccardo di Blasio, SVP vCloud Air Sales:</strong> Left in October 2015 to join Sequoia-backed Cohesity as COO</span></p><p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Simone Brunozzi, VP and Chief Technologist:</strong> Left in January 2016 to join stealth startup</span></p><p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Mathew Lodge, VP of vCloud Air Marketing:</strong> Left in August 2015 to join Accel-backed startup Weaveworks as COO</span></p><p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Diane Gonzalez, VP of vCloud Air Platform:</strong> Left in August 2015 to join Amazon as VP of Commerce Platform</span></p><p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Scott Collison, VP and GM vCloud Air:</strong> Left in September 2015 to join Bessemer-backed startup Nitrous as CEO</span></p><p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Ramin Sayer, SVP of Management:</strong> Left in December 2014 to join Sumo Logic as CEO</span></p><p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Martin Casado, GM and SVP of Networking:</strong> Left in February 2016 to join Andreessen Horowitz as general partner</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">That means in the past year alone, VMware has lost at least 11 of its top executives. On top of that, VMware announced last month that it would be laying off 800 employees, after giving lowered revenue guidance for the upcoming year.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">So what's causing all this change? One former executive we spoke to blamed the current management structure, in which its parent company EMC holds about 80% control of the company. That allows EMC CEO Joe Tucci to have outsized influence over the company's direction, and his hands-on approach only intensified after activist investor Eliot Management <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/activist-investor-pushes-emc-to-break-up-1405915262?ru=yahoo">took a larger stake in the company</a>.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">On top of that, the proposed merger between EMC and Dell is worrying a lot of people internally that the company would end up turning into a slowing company with no fresh innovation. VMware has lost almost 40% of its share value since the proposed merger was first announced in October 2015.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"They're gonna turn into your dad's software company," this person said.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Of course, this is one person's opinion, so it should be taken with a grain of salt. But Wall Street seems to be taking note of this trend, too, as FBR &amp; Co. analyst Daniel Ives wrote in a recent note:</span></p><p class="p1" style="padding-left: 30px;">"We do have major worries about an exodus of employees of VMware wanting to run away from this situation and believe some execution issues can result from this deal, a dynamic VMware hinted at with its conservative 2016 outlook. This will remain a hot-button issue around the VMware story until the company proves otherwise, in our opinion."</p><p class="p1">When we asked VMware about it, its spokesperson told us this is just part of the company's natural transformation cycle, and pointed us towards its deep executive bench.</p><p class="p1"><span>"Leadership change is a natural part of every company's evolution and there is no connection between any of the departures. We continue to attract outstanding talent to the company and we have an extremely strong leadership bench," VMware's spokesperson said.</span></p><p class="p1"><span>In fact, some of the executives on its bench, including sales leader <span>Maurizio Carli, CTO <span>Ray O'Farrell, and executive VP </span><span>Sanjay Poonen were all promoted today to take on bigger roles within the company.</span></span></span></p><p class="p1"><span><span><span>Regardless, with all the management change going on, the situation at VMware will continue to raise question marks for the rest of the year.</span></span></span></p><p class="p1"><span><span><span>"Customers will lose confidence in the company," the former exec we spoke to said. "Where exactly is the company going?"</span></span></span></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/curiosity-rover-mars-takes-selfies-photos-outer-space-nasa-2016-2">There's something unsettling about these photos from NASA's Curiosity Mars rover</a></h3>        <div>            <div>    <script src="http://player.ooyala.com/v3/6e12e8b3387a44daacfb73afba25a76e"></script>    <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="A5d2dwMDE6k7a5W_p92Tz4lr9sTPvcDb" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>    <script>    if (typeof RunFunctions === 'undefined') { var RunFunctions = []; }     RunFunctions.push(function()    {         var ooyalapopvideo = OO.Player.create('ooyalaplayer_popvideo', 'A5d2dwMDE6k7a5W_p92Tz4lr9sTPvcDb',{ autoplay: 'false' });     });    </script>    <noscript><div>Please enable Javascript to watch this video</div></noscript></div>        </div>        <script>(function() { function createPlayer() { OO.ready(function() { RunFunctions.forEach(function(ooyalaFunction) { ooyalaFunction(); }); RunFunctions = [];}); } createPlayer(); }()); </script>    </div>

You Searched For "nasa chief technologist" and got 10 results

Indian-American A C Charania named NASA's chief technologist

IANS

NASA's InSight lander may not be as sexy as a Mars rover, but here's why the mission matters for Earthlings

Hilary Brueck

NASA's new Mars mission just landed - and it could reveal why Earth is habitable but the red planet is not

Dave Mosher

This is NASA's audacious plan to land humans on Mars within your lifetime

Rebecca Harrington

NASA's future missions to Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and beyond could hit a nuclear roadblock within the next decade

Dave Mosher

NASA's InSight robot is about to land on Mars. Here's how it might survive '7 minutes of terror' and make incredible discoveries about the red planet - and Earth, too.

Dave Mosher,Hilary Brueck

The world's top alien hunters explain why a Harvard physicist's discovery of 'alien' tech is likely a false alarm

Adam Barnes

Watch kids react as a magical school bus takes them to 'Mars'

Rebecca Harrington

There's a serious brain drain going at VMware that no one's talking about

Eugene Kim

A forgotten war technology could safely power Earth for millions of years. Here's why we aren't using it

Dave Mosher