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First lady Jill Biden told CNN that she offers a “good balance” of insight to her husband, President Joe Biden. During the interview with CNN during her recent trip to Africa, she claims she maintains a “good balance” of insight and advice she offers the president. The first lady noted that she sees what the president does not always see because she goes out daily — since she is also a full-time teacher at a Community College. “Certainly, I tell him stories, and I have things that I’ve seen and things that people want and where their challenges are,” she...

It could be the end of the red dusty line for NASA's InSight lander, which has fallen silent after four years on Mars. The lander's power levels have been dwindling for months because of all the dust coating its solar panels. Ground controllers at California's Jet Propulsion Laboratory knew the end was near, but NASA reported that InSight unexpectedly didn't respond to communications from Earth on Sunday. "It's assumed InSight may have reached the end of its operations," NASA said late Monday, adding that its last communication was Thursday. "It's unknown what prompted the change in its energy." Just last...

For decades, astronomers assumed that Mars was geodynamically dead — a planet without rumbling earthquakes and erupting volcanoes. Though remnants of towering volcanoes exist on the surface of the Red Planet today, these colossal structures have been dormant for millions of years. With little to no heat firing the planet's engine, scientists reasoned, Mars became dormant long ago. However, over the last five years, this assumption has been proven wrong. NASA's InSight mission has detected quakes and even evidence of recent volcanism around one Martian region, known as Elysium Planitia. And now, they think they know why this activity is...

NASA’s InSight Mars lander has detected the largest quake ever observed on another planet: an estimated magnitude 5 temblor that occurred on May 4, 2022, the 1,222nd Martian day, or sol, of the mission. This adds to the catalog of more than 1,313 quakes InSight has detected since landing on Mars in November 2018. The largest previously recorded quake was an estimated magnitude 4.2 detected Aug. 25, 2021. InSight was sent to Mars with a highly sensitive seismometer, provided by France’s Centre National d’Études Spatiales (CNES), to study the deep interior of the planet. As seismic waves pass through or...

In November 2018, NASA landed InSight on the Martian surface... Its mission, which was recently extended to 2022, is to listen for "marsquakes" and understand what's going on beneath the surface of our cosmic neighbor. In a series of three studies published in the journal Science on Thursday (22 July 2021), a global team of researchers describe the interior of Mars using data obtained by InSight's seismometer, an instrument that responds to vibrations and noise under Mars' surface. Analyzing a series of marsquakes, felt by InSight since 2019, researchers have been able to reveal the inner workings of another planet...

Mass protests on the streets in cities across America “have shown how quickly the mask of decency and morality falls from people when permissiveness hits the streets,” writes His Eminence Metropolitan Luke of Zaporozhye in a reflection published on his Telegram channel on Wednesday, June 2. The carefully-orchestrated protests are in fact a means of control, the outspoken hierarch writes, but rather than being allured by wild images of violence, we should instead turn our gazes and our minds to the Lord Jesus Christ and His saints, he exhorts. “Recent events induce sad reflections,” Met. Luke writes. “Christianity, which was...

At midnight on Mars, the red planet’s magnetic field sometimes starts to pulsate in ways that have never before been observed. The cause is currently unknown. That’s just one of the stunning preliminary findings from NASA’s very first robotic geophysicist there, the InSight lander. Since touching down in November 2018, this spacecraft has been gathering intel to help scientists better understand our neighboring planet’s innards and evolution, such as taking the temperature of its upper crust, recording the sounds of alien quakes, and measuring the strength and direction of the planet’s magnetic field. As revealed during a handful of presentations...

Scientists just felt the Red Planet move under their feet — robotically from millions of miles away, on the stark surface of Mars. On April 6, NASA's InSight lander sensed its first confirmed marsquake, a phenomenon scientists suspected, but couldn't confirm, occurred on the neighboring planet. Measuring the Martian equivalent of earthquakes, seismic waves traveling through the interior of the planet, was among the lander's key science goals. "We've been waiting months for our first marsquake," Philippe Lognonné, the principal investigator for the seismometer instrument, said in a statement released by the French space agency, which runs the instrument with...

On December 1, 2018, NASA’s InSight lander captured a haunting low rumble caused by vibrations from the Martian wind, estimated to be blowing between 10 to 15 mph (5-7 m/sec) from northwest to southeast. The wind was consistent with the direction of dust devil streaks in the landing area, which were observed from orbit. “Capturing this audio was an unplanned treat. But one of the things our mission is dedicated to is measuring motion on Mars, and naturally that includes motion caused by sound waves,” said InSight principal investigator Dr. Bruce Banerdt, a researcher at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.The vibrations...

NASA's Mars InSight rover is on its way to the red planet. The Atlas V rocket carrying the rover into space launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base at 4:05 a.m. on Saturday, May 5. Video http://www.ksby.com/story/38119490/rocket-carrying-mars-rover-launches-from-vandenberg-afb

NASA has two official sites from which the public can watch the launch along with NASA/InSight mission team members. There are also are several informal sites where you can gather with local residents to see InSight launch. The agency warns people to be careful of fog and cold in all viewing areas. ...InSight's launch window May 5 through June 8, 2018,"....lasts for 2 hours, until about 6:05 a.m. PDT (9:05 a.m. EDT/1305 GMT). Lompoc City Airport will open its tarmac to the public no earlier than 2:30 a.m. PDT, with launch commentary starting at 3:30 a.m. PDT.... St. Mary's Episcopal...

May 2018 is the launch window for NASA’s next mission to Mars, the InSight Lander. InSight is the next member of what could be called a fleet of human vehicles destined for Mars. But rather than working on the question of Martian habitability or suitability for life, InSight will try to understand the deeper structure of Mars. InSight stands for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport. InSight will be the first robotic explorer to visit Mars and study the red planet’s deep interior. The work InSight does should answer questions about the formation of Mars, and those...

NASA’s spacecraft that landed on Mars on Monday has beamed back its first clear photo of the desolate Red Planet. “There’s a quiet beauty here. Looking forward to exploring my new home,” NASA tweeted late Monday, hours after its new InSight lander touched down. The image came after the rover had earlier sent back a somewhat blurry photo. The space agency said that in the interim, the spacecraft had opened its solar panels, which allowed it to recharge its batteries for the mission.

Video courtesy of NASA. NASA’s InSight spacecraft is close to making its historic touchdown on Mars after an epic journey of just over 300 million miles.

InSight in Position for Mars Landing November 26 at 10:30 AM PT Mission controllers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, have completed the final adjustments for landing NASA's InSight spacecraft on Mars. Atmospheric entry is expected around 11:47 a.m. PST (2:47 p.m. EST) and touchdown, about seven minutes later.

NASA Live: Watch InSight Mars Landing Online NASA's InSight lander is scheduled to touch down on Mars at approximately 3 p.m. EST, Monday, Nov. 26. NASA TV live coverage of the InSight Mars landing will begin at 2 p.m. Eastern (7 p.m. UTC). Follow @NASA and @NASAInSight for #MarsLanding news. See a list or an interactive timeline of landing milestones. News briefings and launch commentary will be streamed on NASA TV, YouTube.com/NASAJPL/live and Ustream.tv/NASAJPL. Monday, Nov. 26, 2 p.m. Eastern: NASA TV live coverage of InSight mission landing on Mars. Live landing commentary runs from 2-3:30 p.m. The Entry, Descent...

NASA's InSight Mars lander is scheduled to touch down on the Red Planet tomorrow afternoon (Nov. 26), and mission team members and agency officials are understandably nervous about the make-or-break moment. … The difficulty for landed missions stems chiefly from the fact that Mars features both a relatively strong gravitational pull and a wispy atmosphere, which is just 1 percent as thick as that of Earth, said Tom Hoffman, InSight project manager at JPL. So, approaching spacecraft get accelerated to high speeds and then have a hard time dissipating enough energy to slow down before landing, he explained during today's...

The InSight (or "Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport") lander will push through Mars' thin atmosphere using small rockets, deploy parachutes to slow its fall to the surface, and then use retro rockets to finally stick the landing. It will take about 6 minutes from the time the lander reaches the Martian atmosphere until it touches down on the surface of the Red Planet. (Of course, this is if everything goes according to plan: For example, the lander may face dust storms in the northern hemisphere where it's aiming to land. According to NASA, these autumn Martian...

All systems are go for landing on Mars on Nov. 26, NASA personnel affiliated with the InSight mission confirmed during a pair of news conferences held today (Nov. 21). As of that news conference, the spacecraft had traveled about 295 million miles (475 million kilometers) of the 301 million miles (484 million km) that will make up its total journey. But one of the most serious hurdles remains, the entry, descent and landing process, which will begin at about 3 p.m. EST (2000 GMT) on Monday (Nov. 26). "My heart is beating inside of my chest like a drum," NASA...

I TOLD MY SON, "YOU WILL MARRY THE GIRL I CHOOSE." HE SAID, "NO." I TOLD HIM, "SHE IS BILL GATES' DAUGHTER." HE SAID, "YES." I CALLED BILL GATES AND SAID, "I WANT YOUR DAUGHTER TO MARRY MY SON." BILL GATES SAID, "NO." I TOLD BILL GATES, "MY SON IS THE CEO OF THE WORLD BANK." BILL GATES SAID, "OK." I CALLED THE PRESIDENT OF WORLD BANK AND ASKED HIM TO MAKE MY SON THE CEO. HE SAID, "NO." I TOLD HIM, "MY SON IS BILL GATES' SON-IN-LAW." HE SAID, "OK." ' AND THAT'S EXACTLY HOW POLITICS WORKS. And thus...