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Planetary Society
Senior editor and blogger at the Planetary Society
PROFILE
Emily Lakdawalla
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FROM Emily Lakdawalla
To the Point
The Mars Landing and 'Seven Minutes of Terror' On Sunday evening in Pasadena — Monday morning in Times Square — a scientific laboratory is schedule to land on the surface of Mars.With Mars roughly 154 million miles away, the landing can't be controlled from Earth. The Mars rover " Curiosity " is designed to slow down from 13,000 miles an hour to zero in just seven minutes — automatically. If that mind-boggling scenario works, the most complex laboratory ever sent into deep space will try to determine if life might possibly have existed on Mars. Nobody knows if they'll find what they're looking for.Why has NASA spent $2.5 billion on such a risky expedition? Will this weekend's scheduled landing help resolve the fundamental question: are we alone? NASA centers around the country, including NASA Headquarters in Washington, will be open for landing events. Many science centers also are opening for events focused on the Curiosity landing. To find events near you, visit: http://go.nasa.gov/QtmuY7
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To the Point
The Trump agenda: where's the beef? President Trump says big things are happening. After celebrating a House bill on health care, he doesn’t yet have Senate agreement. With James Comey’s public testimony scheduled tomorrow, the President today tweeted his selection of a new FBI Director. Is the Chief Executive all style and no substance? Later, terror attacks in Iran and conflicting claims about who’s behind them.
To the Point
Trump's 'America First' goes missing abroad In the Middle East, President Trump is changing some policies of the Obama Administration—and reversing his own campaign attacks on Islam as a religion that "hates us." We hear about his visit to Saudi Arabia and what's at stake for the rest of his foreign excursion.