posted 08-20-2012 04:41 PM               

This thread is intended for comments and questions regarding NASA's InSight mission to Mars and the updates published under the topic: NASA InSight lander to probe Mars' interior.

InSight (Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport) is a NASA Discovery Program mission that will place a single geophysical lander on Mars to study its deep interior. But InSight is more than a Mars mission — it is a terrestrial planet explorer that will address one of the most fundamental issues of planetary and solar system science — understanding the processes that shaped the rocky planets of the inner solar system (including Earth) more than four billion years ago.

By using sophisticated geophysical instruments, InSight will delve deep beneath the surface of Mars, detecting the fingerprints of the processes of terrestrial planet formation, as well as measuring the planet's "vital signs": Its "pulse" (seismology), "temperature" (heat flow probe), and "reflexes" (precision tracking).

posted 08-21-2012 12:17 PM               

The other two proposals were for missions to a comet and Saturn's moon Titan.

posted 09-03-2012 07:50 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Blackarrow:
I'm going to make a prediction: it will get a colour camera. NASA has learnt its PR lessons.

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I think TiME was a much better choice. Far more PR impact for average Joe for about the same cost (alien oceans!!!), while having the benefit of keeping research into Titan alive. InSight could have flown later in this decade and no one would loose anything, while the window of opportunity for Titan for about US500 million is now lost for next 20 years or so.

posted 09-03-2012 03:25 PM            

quote:

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Originally posted by Gorgon:
InSight could have flown later in this decade and no one would lose anything, while the window of opportunity for Titan for about US500 million is now lost for next 20 years or so.

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posted 09-05-2012 02:48 AM               

InSight is a great mission with great scientific interest, no doubt, but it could have been flown at any time we want for the same price, thus in my opinion it was the wrong decision.

posted 12-22-2015 09:58 AM               

NASA's InSight won't launch in March as planned due to a problem with a CNES-built instrument. More after a 3:30 p.m. EST presser.

posted 12-22-2015 10:58 AM               

We're not giving up resolving NASA Mars InSight lander instrument leak; we have till 5 January to nail it down.

We're not 100% sure that the leak [in] Mars InSight SEIS instrument isn't [a] leak-measure issue rather than actual leak. We took three InSight SEIS leak measures, all with identical results. That's odd if it's a real leak; could be false positive.

posted 12-22-2015 03:20 PM               

After thorough examination, NASA managers have decided to suspend the planned March 2016 launch of the Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) mission. The decision follows unsuccessful attempts to repair a leak in a section of the prime instrument in the science payload.

posted 12-24-2015 11:27 AM               

Our partners at the French space agency are some of the world's experts in this technology.

This is a design that has been developed over about two decades in France. It's a very complex and very difficult system to design and build.

The sensors themselves, electronics, all of the systems of this instrument performed flawlessly in the testing. The problem has been in this vacuum enclosure.

It is not that exotic of a technology to maintain a vacuum. The difficulty comes in being able to build a vacuum system that can maintain its integrity with the very harsh conditions on Mars — the very cold temperatures, the survival of the vibrations from the launch and the landing.

posted 12-25-2015 08:19 AM               

While the seismometer itself apparently works properly, as Robert wrote, to produce meaningful results it must be contained in a vacuumized container. Manufacturing such a container should NOT require cutting edge technology. Yet the damn thing cannot maintain a vacuum.

This is not in the same league as the reasons behind the JWST or MSL launch delays, yet it has placed the InSight mission in jeopardy. During the next two years or so the spacecraft will be in storage, subject to outright cancellation due to mounting budgetary issues. The issue is not just storing the spacecraft for two years while maintaining its support work force. What about the launch vehicle? Will that be in storage as well? If not, will NASA have to purchase a new vehicle at 2018 prices or will they revert back to 2016 prices? We are getting close to InSight's fiscal ceiling and NASA pointedly did NOT promise that the mission won't be cancelled outright. After all, now we have the issue of a new president during this delay. He or she could easily terminate the whole mission on a whim.

posted 12-25-2015 08:41 AM               

The vacuum we're maintaining inside the sphere varies. At the very beginning of life, when we first pump it down, it's at about 10^-7 millibars, so that's like less than a billionth of the pressure of the Earth's atmosphere.

From just normal kind of out-gassing of materials inside the sphere, we expect it to raise up a little bit, maybe a thousandth of a millibar and we can operate our seismometers at about a tenth of a millibar, which is again, about a thousandth of the pressure of the Earth's atmosphere.

The leak rate that we were seeing was bringing it up from essentially zero to about two-tenths of a millibar over the course of a few days. So even today, we still have less than a ten-thousandth atmosphere of pressure in there, which is by most standards, a pretty darn good vacuum, but for our purposes we need a better vacuum than that.

The way NASA and CNES described it, it does not sound like someone "dropped the ball" but that it is just a very difficult piece of hardware to perfect, and that the current leak was only discovered very recently.

posted 03-29-2017 06:33 AM               

Engineers finished qualification testing of an engineering model of the redesigned enclosure a few months ago, and last week they completed vacuum leak testing of the flight model that will go to Mars, according to Bruce Banerdt, InSight's principal investigator at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

JPL took over redesigning and testing the seismometer enclosure, while CNES remains in charge of developing the sensors themselves, integration of the sensors into the container, and final installation of the instrument on the lander.

The tests of the flight model of the enclosure checked its pressure integrity at room temperature and at the temperatures it will encounter at the Martian surface, Banerdt wrote in an email to Spaceflight Now.

posted 08-29-2017 11:33 AM               

Get a unique perspective of the InSight spacecraft coming out of it’s shipping container in our Littleton, Colo. clean room. InSight is the first mission to focus on examining the deep interior of Mars. Information gathered will boost understanding of how all rocky planets formed, including Earth.

posted 08-29-2017 11:45 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Headshot:
I am curious to know if there are comparison images of the French vs the JPL version of the vacuum chamber?

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The Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS) instrument for NASA's InSight mission to Mars undergoes a checkout for the spacecraft's assembly, test and launch operations (ATLO) in this photo taken July 20, 2017, in a Lockheed Martin clean room facility in Littleton, Colorado.

posted 10-03-2017 12:28 PM               

Last Day to Submit: November 1, 2017 (11:59 p.m. ET)

posted 01-23-2018 11:03 PM               

...engineers added a final touch: a microchip inscribed with more than 1.6 million names submitted by the public. It joins a chip containing almost 827,000 names that was glued to the top of InSight back in 2015, adding up to a total of about 2.4 million names going to Mars.

posted 03-01-2018 09:39 AM               

All of NASA's interplanetary launches to date have been from Florida, in part because the physics of launching off the East Coast are better for journeys to other planets. But InSight will break the mold by launching from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. It will be the first launch to another planet from the West Coast.

InSight will ride on top of a powerful Atlas V 401 rocket, which allows for a planetary trajectory to Mars from either coast. Vandenberg was ultimately chosen because it had more availability during InSight's launch period.

A whole new region will get to see an interplanetary launch when InSight rockets into the sky. In a clear, pre-dawn sky, the launch may be visible in California from Santa Maria to San Diego.

posted 03-22-2018 10:50 AM               

NASA Mars Mission Tours California

Scientists and engineers with NASA's next mission to Mars will be touring California cities starting this month.

NASA's InSight mission will be the first interplanetary launch from the West Coast. In preparation for its May launch, the Mars InSight Roadshow is stopping at cities along the earthquake-prone California coast to explain how the robotic lander will study Mars' deep interior using seismology and other geophysical measurements.

The Roadshow brings family-friendly science activities, exhibits and public talks to communities throughout California, making comparisons between earthquakes and the marsquakes that InSight will try to detect. The Roadshow will also partner with local and national organizations along the way, promoting planetary science and showing the benefits of NASA earthquake data gathered by Earth-observing satellites. All the museums are members of the NASA Museum Alliance.

InSight's launch window opens May 5 at Vandenberg Air Force Base near Lompoc, northwest of Santa Barbara. InSight stands for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport. It will be the first mission to study the deep interior of Mars, using an ultra-sensitive seismometer, a heat-flow probe and other instruments. InSight is led by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

What to Expect:

• "Make Your Own Marsquake" demo, in which members of the public jump and see seismometer readings on a screen
  
• Interviews with NASA scientists and engineers
  
• Colorful backdrops and selfie stations
  
• Models of the InSight spacecraft
  
• Mars globe "cutaways" showing the interior of Mars
  
• Virtual reality headsets used to see panoramas of Mars

Who to Expect:

• Members of InSight's mission and science teams
  
• JPL's Mars public engagement team
  
• NASA Solar System Ambassadors

Tour Dates:

The following dates are confirmed. Additional dates, including ones in Southern California, will be added.

• March 30-31, Redding, CA
  Turtle Bay Exploration Park, Exhibit

• March 30, Redding, CA
  Shasta Union High School District's David Marr Theater, Public Talk

• April 13-15, Sacramento, CA
  Powerhouse Science Center, Exhibit

• April 18-22 (Media Day on April 18), San Francisco, CA
  Exploratorium, Exhibits and Public Talks

• April 27-29, San Luis Obispo, CA
  San Luis Obispo Children's Museum, Exhibit

• April 28, San Luis Obispo, CA
  Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Public Talk

• May 2-3, Santa Maria, CA
  Santa Maria Valley Discovery Museum, Exhibit

• May 2, Lompoc, CA
  Dick DeWees Community & Senior Center, Exhibit

• May 3, Lompoc, CA
  Lompoc Public Library, Public Talk

• May 4, Santa Maria, CA
  Allan Hancock College, Exhibit and Public Talk

• May 19, Santa Barbara, CA
  Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, Exhibit

posted 04-03-2018 05:29 PM            

It also will be the first NASA mission since the Apollo moon landings to place a seismometer, a device that measures quakes, on the soil of another planet.

posted 04-06-2018 09:02 AM               

Both Viking landers had their seismometers on top of the spacecraft, where they produced noisy data. InSight's seismometer will be placed directly on the Martian surface, which will provide much cleaner data.

posted 05-05-2018 08:27 PM            

Also, InSight could have flown on a Delta 2 if that option was still available, but since it isn't, the next option is Atlas V, which has enough reserve power to accommodate the less-than-ideal southerly launch trajectory (necessary to avoid endangering inhabited land).

That's all very well, but InSight was originally planned for a Vandenberg launch in March, 2016. Was KSC as busy then? Was Delta 2 unavailable? Were there any other factors not mentioned above?

posted 05-05-2018 08:34 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by SpaceAngel:
Why launch out of Vandenburg AFB instead of Cape Canaveral...

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quote:

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Originally posted by Blackarrow:
Was KSC as busy then? Was Delta 2 unavailable?

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In this case, United Launch Alliance's bid to launch InSight in 2016 included the Atlas V 401 because the Delta II was already in the process of being retired and Vandenberg because congestion at the Cape was expected during the launch window. The mission was not moved to Cape Canaveral after the delay to 2018 because there was no need to do so.

quote:

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I assume this requires a fairly drastic "dog-leg manoeuvre" to put InSight into the plane of Mars' orbit?

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Earth is going 30 km/s. An Atlas can add a few km/s to that, in a direction we choose. We have to choose carefully or we won't get to Mars.

Earth and Mars are in nearly the same plane, but not exactly. So we have to aim a bit out of the plane to get there. Add in Earth's tilt, and you get a parameter we call the declination, or "DLA." Even a smallish plane change can lead to a big DLA, alas.

In order to escape Earth in the right direction efficiently, the park orbit inclination needs to be less than the DLA. But that's all.

A polar orbit can get to any DLA. How, you ask? Consider a polar orbit. As it goes around, the velocity goes from pointing "up" at equator to "horizontally" at the poles. When the departure burn happens, how far "up" or "down" the velocity is pointing becomes the DLA. Voila, a polar orbit can reach any DLA!

posted 05-11-2018 01:32 PM               

ULA's Atlas V rocket blasted off on May 5, 2018, with NASA's InSight mission to Mars. Here's what it looked like from the rocket's perspective.

posted 05-17-2018 08:32 AM               

A Pale Blue Dot, As Seen by a CubeSat

NASA's Voyager 1 took a classic portrait of Earth from several billion miles away in 1990. Now a class of tiny, boxy spacecraft, known as CubeSats, have just taken their own version of a "pale blue dot" image, capturing Earth and its moon in one shot.

Above: The first image captured by one of NASA's Mars Cube One (MarCO) CubeSats. The image, which shows both the CubeSat's unfolded high-gain antenna at right and the Earth and its moon in the center, was acquired by MarCO-B on May 9. (NASA/JPL-Caltech)

NASA set a new distance record for CubeSats on May 8 when a pair of CubeSats called Mars Cube One (MarCO) reached 621,371 miles (1 million kilometers) from Earth. One of the CubeSats, called MarCO-B (and affectionately known as "Wall-E" to the MarCO team) used a fisheye camera to snap its first photo on May 9. That photo is part of the process used by the engineering team to confirm the spacecraft's high-gain antenna has properly unfolded.

As a bonus, it captured Earth and its moon as tiny specks floating in space.

"Consider it our homage to Voyager," said Andy Klesh, MarCO's chief engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. JPL built the CubeSats and leads the MarCO mission. "CubeSats have never gone this far into space before, so it's a big milestone. Both our CubeSats are healthy and functioning properly. We're looking forward to seeing them travel even farther."

The MarCO spacecraft are the first CubeSats ever launched to deep space. Most never go beyond Earth orbit; they generally stay below 497 miles (800 kilometers) above the planet. Though they were originally developed to teach university students about satellites, CubeSats are now a major commercial technology, providing data on everything from shipping routes to environmental changes.

The MarCO CubeSats were launched on May 5 along with NASA's InSight lander, a spacecraft that will touch down on Mars and study the planet's deep interior for the first time. InSight, short for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport, will attempt to land on Mars on Nov. 26. JPL also leads the InSight mission.

Mars landings are notoriously challenging due to the Red Planet's thin atmosphere. The MarCO CubeSats will follow along behind InSight during its cruise to Mars. Should they make it all the way to Mars, they will radio back data about InSight while it enters the atmosphere and descends to the planet's surface. The high-gain antennas are key to that effort; the MarCO team have early confirmation that the antennas have successfully deployed, but will continue to test them in the weeks ahead.

InSight won't rely on the MarCO mission for data relay. That job will fall to NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. But the MarCOs could be a pathfinder so that future missions can "bring their own relay" to Mars. They could also demonstrate a number of experimental technologies, including their antennas, radios and propulsion systems, which will allow CubeSats to collect science in the future.

Later this month, the MarCOs will attempt the first trajectory correction maneuvers ever performed by CubeSats. This maneuver lets them steer towards Mars, blazing a trail for CubeSats to come.

posted 11-21-2018 11:48 AM               

NASA Brings Mars Landing, First in Six Years, to Viewers Everywhere Nov. 26

NASA's Mars Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) lander is scheduled to touch down on the Red Planet at approximately 3 p.m. EST Nov. 26, and viewers everywhere can watch coverage of the event live on NASA Television, the agency's website and social media platforms.

Launched on May 5, InSight marks NASA's first Mars landing since the Curiosity rover in 2012. The landing will kick off a two-year mission in which InSight will become the first spacecraft to study Mars' deep interior. Its data also will help scientists understand the formation of all rocky worlds, including our own.

InSight is being followed to Mars by two mini-spacecraft comprising NASA's Mars Cube One (MarCO), the first deep-space mission for CubeSats. If MarCO makes its planned Mars flyby, it will attempt to relay data from InSight as it enters the planet's atmosphere and lands.

InSight and MarCO flight controllers will monitor the spacecraft's entry, descent and landing from mission control at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, where all landing events will take place.

Broadcast Schedule (all times Eastern)

Times and speakers are subject to change. The public can ask questions on social media during the events by tagging them with #askNASA.

Wednesday, Nov. 21

• 1 p.m. – News conference: Mission engineering overview
  
• 2 p.m. – News conference: Mission science overview

Sunday, Nov. 25

• 1 p.m. – News conference: Final prelanding update
  
• 4 p.m. – NASA Social: InSight team Q&A

Monday, Nov. 26: Landing Day

• 2 to 3:30 p.m. – Live landing commentary on the NASA TV Public Channel
  
• No earlier than 5 p.m. – Post-landing news conference

About 80 live viewing events for the public to watch the InSight landing will take place around the world. For a complete list of landing event watch parties, visit here. For a full list of websites broadcasting InSight landing events, go here.