The video from December shows Trevor Jacob cursing in panic before leaping with a parachute out of a small plane. Some experts wonder if the crash was a publicity stunt.
April 10, 2021
From Leonardo da Vinci’s pyramid design in the 15th century to the supersonic version that helped land the Perseverance rover safely on Mars, the parachute, a device that catches air to control an object’s speed, has played an essential role in land, air, water and space travel. For all of the technology and resources that go into launching a spacecraft out of Earth’s atmosphere, it is the simple parachute that is key to safely landing it. A parachute’s canopy creates drag or air resistance, which means that the air below is pushed up against the underside of the canopy and slows its rate of descent.
NASA Sent a Secret Message to Mars. Meet the People Who Decoded It.
Engineers hinted they had hidden a code in the parachute that landed the Perseverance rover. Within hours, puzzle enthusiasts cracked it.
The parachute that helped land the Perseverance spacecraft, seen from an upward-looking camera during landing on Feb. 18. Within hours of this image’s release on Monday, people figured out the message hidden in its pattern.Credit.NASA/JPL-Caltech
Published Feb. 24, 2021Updated March 23, 2021
Those splotches were a secret message.
During a news conference Monday, Allen Chen, the engineer in charge of the landing system, narrated what could be seen and learned in the slowed-down video.
Meet America’s 63rd National Park
The New River Gorge in West Virginia got the federal government’s highest protection, thanks, in part, to the latest pandemic relief bill.
Kayakers enjoy calm waters under the New River Gorge Bridge.Credit.Tony Cenicola/The New York Times
Feb. 16, 2021
As Americans continue to weather the pandemic, the $2.3 trillion coronavirus relief and spending bill passed by the federal government in December brought an unexpected and lasting gift: a new national park.
The 5,593-page spending package included a raft of provisions authorizing little-known projects the construction of the Teddy Roosevelt Presidential Library in North Dakota, for one and giving lawmakers a chance to advance a variety of long-delayed initiatives. Among them was the elevation of the New River Gorge, in southern West Virginia, to the status of Yellowstone, Yosemite and the country’s other most renowned outdoor spaces. The designation of the area roughly 72,000 acres of