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The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com
Wednesday, November 21,2018 7A
Rocket to attempt Mars landing
In this May 4 photo provided by NASA, the mobile service
tower is rolled back to reveal the United Launch Alliance
Atlas-V rocket with NASA’s InSight spacecraft onboard at
Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif.
‘Any time you’re trying to land
on Mars, it’s crazy, frankly I don’t
think there’s a sane way to do it.’
Tom Hoffman
Insight’s project manager
BY MARCIA DUNN
Associated Press
Mars is about to get its
first U.S. visitor in years:
a three-legged, one-armed
geologist to dig deep and
listen for quakes.
NASA’s InSight makes
its grand entrance through
the rose-tinted Martian
skies on Monday, after a
six-month, 300 million-
mile journey. It will be the
first American spacecraft
to land since the Curiosity
rover in 2012 and the first
dedicated to exploring
underground.
NASA is going with a
tried-and-true method to
get this mechanical miner
to the surface of the red
planet. Engine firings will
slow its final descent and
the spacecraft will plop
down on its rigid legs, mim
icking the landings of ear
lier successful missions.
That’s where old school
ends on this $1 billion U.S.-
European effort.
Once flight controllers in
California determine the
coast is clear at the landing
site — fairly flat and rock
free — InSight’s 6-foot arm
will remove the two main
science experiments from
the lander’s deck and place
them directly on the Mar
tian surface.
No spacecraft has
attempted anything like that
before.
The firsts don’t stop there.
One experiment will
attempt to penetrate 16
feet into Mars, using a self
hammering nail with heat
sensors to gauge the planet’s
internal temperature. That
would shatter the out-of-
this-world depth record of
8 feet drilled by the Apollo
moonwalkers nearly a half-
century ago for lunar heat
measurements.
The astronauts also left
behind instruments to mea
sure moonquakes. InSight
carries the first seismom
eters to monitor for mars-
quakes — if they exist. Yet
another experiment will
calculate Mars’ wobble,
providing clues about the
planet’s core.
It won’t be looking for
past or present signs of life.
The spacecraft is like
a self-sufficient robot,
said lead scientist Bruce
Banerdt of NASA’s Jet Pro
pulsion Laboratory.
“It’s got its own brain. It’s
got an arm that can manip
ulate things around. It can
listen with its seismometer.
It can feel things with the
pressure sensors and the
temperature sensors. It
pulls its own power out of
the sun,” he said.
By scoping out the
insides of Mars, scientists
could learn how our neigh
bor — and other rocky
worlds, including the Earth
and moon — formed and
transformed over billions
of years. Mars is much less
geologically active than
Earth, and so its interior is
closer to being in its origi
nal state — a tantalizing
time capsule.
InSight stands to “revo
lutionize the way we think
about the inside of the
planet,” said NASA’s sci
ence mission chief, Thomas
Zurbuchen.
BILL INGALLS I Associated Press
But first, the 800-pound
vehicle needs to get safely
to the Martian surface. This
time, there won’t be a ball
bouncing down with the
spacecraft tucked inside,
like there were for the
Spirit and Opportunity rov
ers in 2004. And there won’t
be a sky crane to lower the
lander like there was for
the six-wheeled Curiosity
during its dramatic “seven
minutes of terror.”
“That was crazy,”
acknowledged InSight’s
project manager, Tom
Hoffman. But he noted,
“Any time you’re trying
to land on Mars, it’s crazy,
frankly. I don’t think
there’s a sane way to do it.”
No matter how it’s done,
getting to Mars and land
ing there is hard — and
unforgiving.
Earth’s success rate at
Mars is just 40 percent,
including flybys dating
back to the 1960s, as well as
orbiters and landers.
While it’s had its share of
flops, the U.S. has by far the
best track record. No one
else has managed to land
and operate a spacecraft
on Mars. Two years ago, a
European lander came in
so fast, its descent system
askew, that it carved out a
crater on impact.
This time, NASA is bor
rowing a page from the
1976 twin Vikings and
the 2008 Phoenix, which
also were stationary and
three-legged.
“But you never know
what Mars is going to
do,” Hoffman said. “Just
because we’ve done it
before doesn’t mean we’re
not nervous and excited
about doing it again.”
Wind gusts could send
the spacecraft into a dan
gerous tumble during
descent, or the parachute
could get tangled. A dust
storm like the one that
enveloped Mars this past
summer could hamper
InSight’s ability to generate
solar power. A leg could
buckle. The arm could jam.
The tensest time for
flight controllers in Pasa
dena, California: the six
minutes from the time
the spacecraft hits Mars’
atmosphere and touch
down. They’ll have jars of
peanuts on hand — a good-
luck tradition dating back
to 1964’s successful Ranger
7 moon mission.
InSight will enter Mars’
atmosphere at a super
sonic 12,300 mph, rely
ing on its white nylon
parachute and a series of
engine firings to slow down
enough for a soft upright
landing on Mars’ Elysium
Planitia, a sizable equato
rial plain.
InSight — short for Inte
rior Exploration using
Seismic Investigations,
Geodesy and Heat Trans
port — will rest close to the
ground, its top deck barely
a yard above the surface.
Once its twin circular solar
panels open, the lander
will occupy the space of a
car.
If NASA gets lucky, a
pair of laptop-size satellites
trailing InSight since their
joint May liftoff could pro
vide near-live updates dur
ing the lander’s descent.
RODRIGO ABD I Associated Press
Central American migrants, part of the Central American
caravan trying to reach the U.S, continue their journey as
they prepare to leave Mexicali, Mexico, Tuesday, Nov. 20.
Migrants weigh
options after
court blocks ban
BY JULIE WATSON
Associated Press
TIJUANA, Mexico -
Migrants camped in Tijuana
after traveling in a caravan to
reach the U.S were weighing
their options Tuesday after a
U.S. court blocked President
Trump’s asylum ban for ille
gal border crossers.
Many said they have no
intention of breaking the law,
but were feeling pressure
after anti-migrant protests
in this Mexican border city
amid claims by Trump and
the Tijuana mayor that the
caravan harbors gang mem
bers and criminals, some
thing they strongly deny.
Herson Cordonez, a
29-year-old Honduran, said
the actions of a few migrants
were tainting the image of
the entire group. “We are not
criminals, we are migrant
workers,’’Cordonez said.
Tijuana officials said Mon
day they had arrested 34
caravan members for drug
possession, public intoxica
tion, disturbing the peace
and resisting police, and they
would be deported to their
home countries.
Trump administration offi
cials, who have portrayed the
migrant caravans as a threat
to the United States, have
said there are as many as 500
criminals in the groups head
ing northward, though they
haven’t said what crimes
they are accused of or where
the figure came from.
On Tuesday, journalists
awaited the arrival of Home
land Security Secretary Kris
ten Nielsen on a San Diego
beach sliced by a towering
border wall wrapped in razor
wire. On the Tijuana side,
onlookers gathered to take
pictures of her arrival.
A man tried to swim into
the U.S. just before Nielsen’s
arrival but was quickly
detained by border patrol
agents. Five agents were on
jet skis offshore along with
two boats, while two drones
on the Mexican side hovered
just above the wall to get a
view of the activity.
Tijuana Mayor Juan
Manuel Gastelum has made
a point of saying the city is
not happy with the migrants’
arrival last week, and com
pared the Central Ameri
can group unfavorably with
about 3,000 Haitians who
stayed after their bid to reach
the U.S. failed last year.
“The Haitians arrived with
their papers, with a clear
vision,” Gastelum said in an
interview on the city’s Face-
book page. They came “in
an orderly way, they never
asked us for food or shelter,”
renting apartments and mak
ing their own food. He said
the Haitians found jobs and
“inserted themselves in the
city’s economy” and weren’t
involved in any disturbances.
By contrast, Gastelum
said, the caravan of Central
Americans, “had arrived all
of sudden, with a lot of peo
ple — not all... but a lot —
were aggressive and cocky.”
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Advanced
Eye Center
We Welcome a New Ophthalmologist
William C. Ackerman, Jr.,
M.D. and Advanced Eye
Center are pleased to announce
the addition of Centrael
"Sonny" Evans, M.D. as a
new ophthalmologist with the
practice. Dr. Evans completed
his undergraduate degree at
Brigham Young University, his
medical degree from Emory
University of Medicine and his
ophthalmology degree from the
State University of New York-
Buff alo, where he served as
Chief Resident. Centrael "Sonny"
Dr Evans was nominated Evans M.D.
by faculty and peers into
the Richard Sarkin/Emeritus Faculty Chapter of the
Gold Humanism Honor Society. The review process
of the society is by a Selection Committee for qualities
of extraordinary compassion, empathy, altruism, and
professionalism. He also received the Evan Calkins, MD,
Fellowship for Community-Based Research, to support
his research into improving outcomes for patients with
ophthalmological emergencies.
Dr. Evans is a comprehensive ophthalmologist trained
in the medical, laser and surgical management of a wide
variety of eye diseases such as Cataract, Glaucoma,
Diabetic Eye Disease, Macular Degeneration, Traumatic
Eye Injuries and more.
An Athens native and Jefferson resident, Dr. Evans enjoys
spending time with his family, hunting, restoring vintage
muscle cars and cheering for the Dawgs. He will be joining
the team at Advanced Eye Center on December 10,2018.
Dr. Evans is now accepting New Patients
Call 770-532-0292 to schedule your appointment
625 South Enota Drive • Gainesville, GA 30501 • 770-532-0292
www.aeceyecare.com
William C. Ackerman, Jr., M.D. Board Certified Ophthalmologist
