Perseverence about to land on Mars, I think 3:55 PM Eastern

[DanW58]

I almost missed it, myself.  Sounding the heads up, so we all watch it live.

https://youtu.be/sty0e6l3Y3Y

 

By the way, the UAE sent a probe to orbit Mars, and it arrived safely a week ago or so, but since it's the UAE that did it, it gets no media attention.

It is, however, not just a "we did it" thing;  it is full of valuable instruments.

https://emiratesmarsmission.ae/

[DanW58]

Update:  As probably all of you know already, the landing of Perseverence was a complete success.

Not that it was glitch-free... There are debris that come out with the parachute deploy that were not supposed to be there... Something broke off the spacecraft;  probably not too important.  Also, when the heatshield falls away, it carries with it a spring it wasn't supposed be carrying away with it, but no harm anyways.  And how do we know all this?  Because unlike previous missions, this one was programmed to take video of the whole descent and landing, and we have the video, and it's awsome.  But it was supposed to also record sound, but the microphone failed.  But the back-up microphone is apparently working, and we got sound of Martian wind.  Anyways, here's a video by this great science video youtuber, Anton, with a rough update of what's up with Perseverence:

 

If you need to see the few things that went wrong with it, check out Scott Manley's video on it:

 

And here's a long-awaited update on Schroedinger's Cat, by Science babe Sabine:

 

--not that I agree;  this "Superdeterminism" stuff sounds like a joke to me.  Why do people keep trying to come up with new "interpretations" when Bell's Theorem already *proved* there's no need for anything beyond what QM equations describe?

 

Edited February 27, 2021 by DanW58

[DanW58]

Me too.  People ask me if I would go to Mars, myself.  I say I'd buy a ONE WAY ticket any day.