03-13-2016, 04:27 PM
No Iridium flares visible over HPP tonight, but if you're up at 10:30 PM the European Space Agency will begin their live broadcast of a joint ESA-Russian satellite launch to Mars. Lift off is at 11:30. If successful, the mission will travel to Mars in a blistering fast 7 months, and once inserted into orbit around the red planet (now visible before dawn in Hawaii*), begin atmosphere analysis, and tests of a lander for phase 2. Phase 2 will launch a few years from now, set down on the planet's surface and conduct tests for signs of life. Exciting stuff.
You can watch the launch live on your computer in Puna* (as HI-SEAS continues their year long experiments for living on Mars on the slopes of Mauna Loa*) at:
http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_...ars_launch
* unabashed attempt to stretch this into a Puna, Hawaii & Mars related topic
"How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives." -Annie Dillard
You can watch the launch live on your computer in Puna* (as HI-SEAS continues their year long experiments for living on Mars on the slopes of Mauna Loa*) at:
http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_...ars_launch
* unabashed attempt to stretch this into a Puna, Hawaii & Mars related topic
"How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives." -Annie Dillard
“We do this thing not because it is easy, but because we thought it would be easy.”