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  [Discuss] NASA's InSight mission on Mars (Page 2)

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Author Topic:   [Discuss] NASA's InSight mission on Mars
Blackarrow
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posted 11-23-2018 11:26 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Blackarrow     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I feel this landing has sort of crept up on us. I'm not sure whether that's because there have been many other space developments in the past six months or whether it's because some people might see a static lander as "old hat" after three rovers. Not me! I'm looking forward to (I hope!) a fresh view of Mars next Monday.

Robert Pearlman
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posted 11-24-2018 11:05 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Just to manage expectations, here is what NASA has to say about the timing of the first image from InSight. Landing is expected at 11:47 a.m. PST (1947 UTC) on Monday (Nov. 26), though it will take about eight minutes for the signal confirming the spacecraft is safely down to reach Earth.
Once InSight has touched down on the Martian surface, there are several opportunities for the lander to send back an image from the Martian surface. The cameras will have their covers on for each of these opportunities, which could obscure the images slightly. (The first images from the Curiosity rover included its dust cover.)

The lander has been programmed to take its first images several minutes after touchdown. The transmission of these images back to Earth will take longer. Engineering data are prioritized above images so it's possible that only part of an image (or none at all) will be transmitted in the first hours after landing. The image could be transmitted at various times via MarCO, MRO or Odyssey.

How InSight's First Images Could Be Returned to Earth:

  • MarCO, the experimental pair of CubeSats, could relay back a first image just after the entry, descent and landing phase. If this happens, the image (or partial image) could be available within 10 to 20 minutes of touchdown.

  • Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) could — but is unlikely to — relay back an image. MRO will prioritize relaying engineering data as it is setting over the Martian horizon. An image received via MRO wouldn’t be ready until late afternoon.

  • Odyssey could — but is also unlikely to — relay back images during its first pass, which occurs several hours after InSight lands. At that time, it will receive a recording of the EDL data from InSight. It may not be able to transmit image data before it passes over the horizon; if it did, it would be available in the early evening.

  • Odyssey will also pass over InSight the day after landing between 6 and 8 a.m. PST (9 and 11 a.m. EST) [14:00 and 16:00 UTC] on Nov. 27.

Blackarrow
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posted 11-24-2018 05:03 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Blackarrow     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Thank you, Robert. Most "business-speak" annoys me, but "managing expectations" has a crystal clear meaning, and your summary is timely and helpful.

I'm afraid it seems to be another example of the latest probes so much slower in returning their data than probes 40 years ago. Viking 1 only needed 42 minutes to transmit its first image. I'm tempted to suggest that there must be some kind of inverse square law in operation here: as the sophistication of the electronics doubles, the time needed to transmit results quadruples. If the same thing happened on the internet, we would probably all be yearning for the days of superfast dial-up.

Robert Pearlman
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posted 11-24-2018 07:36 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
As noted, InSight prioritizes engineering data over imagery during its first minutes on the planet.

Beyond that, InSight is equipped with cameras in order to determine the best place to deploy its science instruments on the ground. The mission itself is not (primarily) concerned with what can be seen on the surface, but rather what lies beneath.

Blackarrow
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posted 11-26-2018 12:48 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Blackarrow     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Robert, I'm not disputing your assessment, but the example of Juno shows that it takes a camera sending back images to get the public (particularly U.S. taxpayers) interested. I will be one of the tiny minority of people who will, in the fullness of time, savour the detailed science results from the mission, but today and tomorrow, what people want to see are pictures of a new location on Mars.

denali414
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posted 11-26-2018 01:38 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for denali414   Click Here to Email denali414     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Just saw and thought pretty cool, but in conjunction with the InSight mission today, NASA representatives will be ringing the Nasdaq stock exchange closing bell.

denali414
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posted 11-26-2018 01:55 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for denali414   Click Here to Email denali414     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
That was exciting and have touchdown! Glad to see the cubes keep all data in real time.

Blackarrow
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posted 11-26-2018 02:07 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Blackarrow     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Well done again, NASA!

And they did get a first picture from Cubesat!

Robert Pearlman
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posted 11-26-2018 02:11 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
The first photo returned by InSight after landing on Nov. 26, 2018. The image was taken through the camera's dust cover.
NASA's InSight Mars lander acquired this image of the area in front of the lander using its lander-mounted, Instrument Context Camera (ICC).

This image was acquired on November 26, 2018, Sol 0 of the InSight mission where the local mean solar time for the image exposures was 13:34:21. Each ICC image has a field of view of 124 x 124 degrees.

Madon_space
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posted 11-26-2018 02:12 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Madon_space   Click Here to Email Madon_space     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Another amazing achievement in landing a craft on Mars. Massive well done to all involved.

Blackarrow
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posted 11-26-2018 06:46 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Blackarrow     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I notice the media are still saying that "most Mars landings have failed." I count seven successes (including InSight) and seven failures (Mars 2 and 3; the two Soviet landers in 1973; Mars Polar Lander; Beagle 2 and Schiaparelli). Have I missed anything? (I'm not counting missions which failed to leave Earth, since failure in this context means a failed landing on Mars). That makes a 50% success rate (or 87.5% for NASA).

However, it's a little harsh saying Mars 3 failed, since it landed and began to transmit an image before probably succumbing to the effects of a global dust-storm. Also, Beagle 2 appears to have landed safely, but could not transmit data because one solar panel failed to deploy. But I suppose we have to distinguish between "safe landing" and "mission success" since the latter requires the former, but the former does not necessarily lead to the latter.

Robert Pearlman
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posted 11-26-2018 06:51 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
There have now been eight successful landings:
  1. Viking 1 (1976)
  2. Viking 2 (1976)
  3. Mars Pathfinder (1997)
  4. Mars Exploration Rover Spirit (2004)
  5. Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity (2004)
  6. Phoenix (2008)
  7. Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity (2012)
  8. InSight (2018)
As for failures, you may personally choose to exclude launch failures and LEO issues, but as that is part of the mission, they generally are included.

Robert Pearlman
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posted 11-26-2018 06:55 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
NASA/JPL-Caltech image
On Nov. 26, 2018, MarCO-B, one of NASAs Mars Cube One (MarCO) CubeSats, took this image of Mars from about 4,700 miles (6,000 kilometers) away during its flyby of the Red Planet.

MarCO-B, one of the experimental Mars Cube One (MarCO) CubeSats, took this image of Mars from about 4,700 miles (6,000 kilometers) away during its flyby of the Red Planet on Nov. 26, 2018. MarCO-B was flying by Mars with its twin, MarCO-A, to attempt to serve as communications relays for NASA's InSight spacecraft as it landed on Mars. This image was taken at about 12:10 p.m. PST (3:10 p.m. EST) while MarCO-B was flying away from the planet after InSight landed.

Robert Pearlman
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posted 11-26-2018 06:58 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by denali414:
...will be ringing the Nasdaq stock exchange closing bell.
Here is the video:

Robert Pearlman
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posted 11-26-2018 08:35 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
From NASA InSight on Twitter:
There’s a quiet beauty here. Looking forward to exploring my new home.

NASA's InSight Mars lander acquired this image using its robotic arm-mounted, Instrument Deployment Camera (IDC).

This image was acquired on November 26, 2018, Sol 0 where the local mean solar time for the image exposures was 14:04:35. Each IDC image has a field of view of 45 x 45 degrees.

Blackarrow
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posted 11-26-2018 09:06 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Blackarrow     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Robert Pearlman:
There have now been eight successful landings:

Agreed. I must have missed a finger.

MCroft04
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posted 11-27-2018 12:32 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for MCroft04   Click Here to Email MCroft04     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
This is way too cool. How many times do you see a photograph from Mars that was taken less than a half hour ago?

Lasv3
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posted 11-27-2018 01:24 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Lasv3   Click Here to Email Lasv3     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Speaking of successful landings score there must be a definition of the "successful landing." What I have on mind is the Soviet Mars 3 spacecraft, which made the first soft landing on Mars surface on 2nd December 1971. However, after starting to transmit the first picture from the surface it ceased to communicate and remained silent from then on.

Nobody knows exactly what was the reason till today - for more details please see Springer-Praxis "Russian Planetary Exploration" by Brian Harvey (p.144-146).

On edit: I'm sorry I did not read the previous post by Blackarrow re. Mars 3 and Beagle properly and that was also my point — to make a difference between the successful landing and successful mission.

Rick Mulheirn
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posted 11-27-2018 02:37 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Rick Mulheirn     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Always exciting to see the first clear image from the surface of any celestial body following a successful landing.

denali414
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posted 11-27-2018 07:28 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for denali414   Click Here to Email denali414     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Really think the Cubesat technology now that have operational proof works — really going to open a whole new area of space exploration and views at a substantially cheaper cost for many missions, this in my opinion going to be the real "star" of this mission.
By verifying CubeSats are a viable technology for interplanetary missions, and feasible on a short development timeline, this technology demonstration could lead to many other applications to explore and study our solar system.

Jim Behling
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posted 11-27-2018 07:54 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Jim Behling   Click Here to Email Jim Behling     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
That is really overblowing it. They are not really viable beyond Mars. There is not enough power to really do anything.

denali414
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posted 11-27-2018 08:08 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for denali414   Click Here to Email denali414     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Jim, I am not sure what NASA classifies as deep space borders, but the program is designed to help with deep space at reduced costs. You may be correct there is a distance factor to what is the "scalability" readings in deep space, but haven't seen any data about that yet.
Our hope is that MarCO could help democratize deep space," said Jakob Van Zyl, director of the Solar System Exploration Directorate at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. "The technology is cheap enough that you could envision countries entering space that weren't players in the past. Even universities could do this.
From JPL:
A major draw of the CubeSat platform for science is its low cost, and JPL is working to adapt these new technologies to a variety of budgets. JPL’s deep space telemetry data and trajectory design technologies are scalable based on budget and scientific requirements, and new technology designs have a strong emphasis on cost-effectiveness.

Robert Pearlman
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posted 11-28-2018 03:00 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
From HiRISE (High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter) on Twitter:
MRO's attempt to image InSight on the parachute during its descent was unsuccessful.

The geometry was more challenging than the Phoenix and Curiosity images, and the uncertainty in timing and the limitations on MRO's ability to rapidly pan the camera across the scene motivated the HiRISE team to use a camera setting which unfortunately saturated the detector.

While disappointing, it is great to know that the parachute worked and the landing went as planned.

We want to thank all the folks who worked hard on this (special thanks to Maven) and we can't wait for some great science from InSight to start coming in!

cspg
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posted 12-03-2018 05:05 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for cspg   Click Here to Email cspg     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
InSight as viewed by Swiss cartoonist Chappatte in Der Spiegel (Germany). I guess some won't find it funny...

I wish there was a book titled "Space Exploration illustrated by cartoonists" and in the same format as the recently published New Yorker Encyclopedia of Cartoons.

Robert Pearlman
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posted 12-07-2018 05:30 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
InSight has provided the first ever "sounds" of Martian winds on the Red Planet.

Headshot
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posted 12-08-2018 01:05 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Headshot   Click Here to Email Headshot     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Have engineers and scientists pinpointed exactly where InSight landed within the target ellipse? It seems that Curiosity was located on the ground by MRO fairly soon after landing, but it has already been 12 sols since InSight landed with nary a word.

Dave_Johnson
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posted 12-08-2018 11:17 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Dave_Johnson   Click Here to Email Dave_Johnson     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
For those of who submitted their names to be included on InSight, at least one of the newly-released raw images shows the chips containing our names as it sits on the lander on Mars' surface.

Prior to launch, NASA provided a page with an explanation and shows a technician installing the second chip, giving a reference point to find on returned images from the surface.

The Insight Raw Images page has an image that shows the two chips on the lander's deck.

They are the two small raised circular "buttons" at the right-center of the image, beyond the silver dome, and near the edge of the deck. They are between the bundle of thick cables with the white bands on them on the right, and the raised black panel that has five square patches with circles above them (and an American flag at the top left corner of it in enlarged views).

Robert Pearlman
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posted 12-12-2018 12:44 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
NASA release
NASA's InSight Takes Its First Selfie

NASA's InSight lander isn't camera-shy. The spacecraft used a camera on its robotic arm to take its first selfie - a mosaic made up of 11 images. This is the same imaging process used by NASA's Curiosity rover mission, in which many overlapping pictures are taken and later stitched together. Visible in the selfie are the lander's solar panel and its entire deck, including its science instruments.

Above: This is NASA InSight's first selfie on Mars. It displays the lander's solar panels and deck. On top of the deck are its science instruments, weather sensor booms and UHF antenna. The selfie was taken on Dec. 6, 2018 (Sol 10). (NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Mission team members have also received their first complete look at InSight's "workspace" - the approximately 14-by-7-foot (4-by-2-meter) crescent of terrain directly in front of the spacecraft. This image is also a mosaic composed of 52 individual photos.

In the coming weeks, scientists and engineers will go through the painstaking process of deciding where in this workspace the spacecraft's instruments should be placed. They will then command InSight's robotic arm to carefully set the seismometer (called the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure, or SEIS) and heat-flow probe (known as the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package, or HP3) in the chosen locations. Both work best on level ground, and engineers want to avoid setting them on rocks larger than about a half-inch (1.3 cm).

Above: This mosaic, composed of 52 individual images from NASA's InSight lander, shows the workspace where the spacecraft will eventually set its science instruments. The lavender annotation shows where InSight's seismometer (called the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure, or SEIS) and heat flow probe (called the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package, or HP3) can be placed. (NASA/JPL-Caltech)

"The near-absence of rocks, hills and holes means it'll be extremely safe for our instruments," said InSight's Principal Investigator Bruce Banerdt of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. "This might seem like a pretty plain piece of ground if it weren't on Mars, but we're glad to see that."

InSight's landing team deliberately chose a landing region in Elysium Planitia that is relatively free of rocks. Even so, the landing spot turned out even better than they hoped. The spacecraft sits in what appears to be a nearly rock-free "hollow" - a depression created by a meteor impact that later filled with sand. That should make it easier for one of InSight's instruments, the heat-flow probe, to bore down to its goal of 16 feet (5 meters) below the surface.

Mike Dixon
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posted 12-12-2018 01:11 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Mike Dixon   Click Here to Email Mike Dixon     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
That's a lucky outcome.

Robert Pearlman
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posted 12-12-2018 09:18 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Headshot:
Have engineers and scientists pinpointed exactly where InSight landed within the target ellipse?
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has photographed InSight on the surface. From Twitter, in reply to InSight's first selfie:
Peek-a-boo, HiRISE sees you... later this week you all can do the comparison with this spectacular image.

Robert Pearlman
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posted 12-13-2018 12:58 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
NASA release
Mars InSight Lander Seen in First Images from Space

On Nov. 26, NASA's InSight mission knew the spacecraft touched down within an 81-mile-long (130-kilometer-long) landing ellipse on Mars. Now, the team has pinpointed InSight's exact location using images from HiRISE, a powerful camera onboard another NASA spacecraft, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).

Above: NASA's InSight spacecraft, its heat shield and its parachute were imaged on Dec. 6 and 11 by the HiRISE camera onboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona)

The InSight lander, its heat shield and parachute were spotted by HiRISE (which stands for High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) in one set of images last week on Dec. 6, and again on Tuesday, Dec. 11. The lander, heat shield and parachute are within 1,000 feet (several hundred meters) of one another on Elysium Planitia, the flat lava plain selected as InSight's landing location.

Above: An annotated image of the surface of Mars, taken by the HiRISE camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) on May 30, 2014. The annotations — added after InSight landed on Nov. 26, 2018 — display the locations of NASA's InSight lander, its heat shield and parachute. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona)

In images released today, the three new features on the Martian landscape appear teal. That's not their actual color: Light reflected off their surfaces causes the color to be saturated. The ground around the lander appears dark, having been blasted by its retrorockets during descent. Look carefully for a butterfly shape, and you can make out the lander's solar panels on either side.

This isn't the first time HiRISE has photographed a Mars lander. InSight is based largely on 2008's Phoenix spacecraft, which the camera aboard MRO captured on the surface of Mars as well as descending on its parachute. While the HiRISE team at the University of Arizona also tried to take an image of InSight during landing, MRO was at a much less opportune angle and wasn't able to take a good picture.

Above: The red dot marks the final landing location of NASA's InSight lander in this annotated image of the surface of Mars, taken by the THEMIS camera on NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey orbiter in 2015. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona)

Robert Pearlman
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posted 02-19-2019 11:40 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
NASA release
InSight Is the Newest Mars Weather Service

No matter how cold your winter has been, it's probably not as chilly as Mars. Check for yourself: Starting today, the public can get a daily weather report from NASA's InSight lander.

This public tool includes stats on temperature, wind and air pressure recorded by InSight. Sunday's weather was typical for the lander's location during late northern winter: a high of 2 degrees Fahrenheit (-17 degrees Celsius) and low of -138 degrees Fahrenheit (-95 degrees Celsius), with a top wind speed of 37.8 mph (16.9 m/s) in a southwest direction. The tool was developed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, with partners at Cornell University and Spain's Centro de Astrobiología. JPL leads the InSight mission.

Through a package of sensors called the Auxiliary Payload Subsystem (APSS), InSight will provide more around-the-clock weather information than any previous mission to the Martian surface. The lander records this data during each second of every sol (a Martian day) and sends it to Earth on a daily basis. The spacecraft is designed to continue that operation for at least the next two Earth years, allowing it to study seasonal changes as well.

The tool will be geeky fun for meteorologists while offering everyone who uses it a chance to be transported to another planet.

"It gives you the sense of visiting an alien place," said Don Banfield of Cornell University, in Ithaca, New York, who leads InSight's weather science. "Mars has familiar atmospheric phenomena that are still quite different than those on Earth."

Constantly collecting weather data allows scientists to detect sources of "noise" that could influence readings from the lander's seismometer and heat flow probe, its main instruments. Both are affected by Mars' extreme temperature swings. The seismometer, called the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS), is sensitive to air pressure changes and wind, which create movements that could mask actual marsquakes.

"APSS will help us filter out environmental noise in the seismic data and know when we're seeing a marsquake and when we aren't," Banfield said. "By operating continuously, we'll also see a more detailed view of the weather than most surface missions, which usually collect data only intermittently throughout a sol."

APSS includes an air pressure sensor inside the lander and two air temperature and wind sensors on the lander's deck. Under the edge of the deck is a magnetometer, provided by UCLA, which will measure changes in the local magnetic field that could also influence SEIS. It is the first magnetometer ever placed on the surface of another planet.

InSight will provide a unique data set that will complement the weather measurements of other active missions, including NASA's Curiosity rover and orbiters circling the planet. InSight's air temperature and wind sensors are actually refurbished spares originally built for Curiosity's Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS). These two east- and west-facing booms sit on the lander's deck and are calledTemperature and Wind for InSight (TWINS), provided by Spain's Centro de Astrobiología.

TWINS will be used to tell the team when strong winds could interfere with small seismic signals. But it could also be used, along with InSight's cameras, to study how much dust and sand blow around. Scientists don't know how much wind it takes to lift dust in Mars' thin atmosphere, which affects dune formation and dust storms — including planet-encircling dust storms like the one that occurred last year, effectively ending the Opportunity rover's mission.

APSS will also help the mission team learn about dust devils that have left streaks on the planet's surface. Dust devils are essentially low-pressure whirlwinds, so InSight's air pressure sensor can detect when one is near. It's highly sensitive — 10 times more so than equipment on the Viking and Pathfinder landers — enabling the team to study dust devils from hundreds of feet (dozens of meters) away.

"Our data has already shown there are a lot of dust devils at our location," Banfield said. "Having such a sensitive pressure sensor lets us see more of them passing by."

Headshot
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posted 08-05-2019 05:42 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Headshot   Click Here to Email Headshot     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Are there any new developments concerning the HP3 experiment? I see that the "mole" has been uncovered and the scoop at the end of the robotic arm had been positioned to compress the soil near it. I was surprised to see that the arm had been raised up again. I cannot detect any apparent downward movement by the "mole."

Robert Pearlman
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posted 08-05-2019 06:43 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
There has been no news just yet if the scoop pressed down on the soil or what result that press had on the mole's ability to dig.

Robert Pearlman
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posted 08-16-2019 12:53 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
From InSight on Twitter:
I’ve pressed down next to the "mole" several times, and it's hard to make this unusual soil collapse into the pit. Soon, I'll be out of contact for a couple of weeks during solar conjunction, but my team on Earth will keep working it. Keep sending good vibes!

SpaceAholic
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posted 09-20-2019 09:20 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for SpaceAholic   Click Here to Email SpaceAholic     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
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 this week at a joint meeting of the European Planetary Science Congress and the American Astronomical Society, the early data suggest the magnetic machinations of Mars are marvelously mad.

Robert Pearlman
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posted 10-27-2019 11:34 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Something odd is happening with the HP3 instrument. Based on the latest raw images posted, it appears the mole has popped out of the ground.

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posted 10-27-2019 11:51 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Headshot   Click Here to Email Headshot     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
The latest raw images from Insight show the mole sticking out of the ground far more than a few days ago, when it was almost totally buried. How did it get like that and why? I could find no explanation of this on the Insight website or P.I. Spohn's website.

Robert Pearlman
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posted 10-27-2019 03:41 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
From NASA's InSight Twitter account:
Mars continues to surprise us. While digging this weekend the mole backed about halfway out of the ground. Preliminary assessment points to unexpected soil properties as the main reason. Team looking at next steps.

One possibility observed in testing on Earth is that soil could fall in front of the mole's tip as it rebounds, gradually filling the hole in front of it as the mole backs out. Team continues to look over the data and will have a plan in the next few days.

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posted 01-19-2020 07:30 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Headshot   Click Here to Email Headshot     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
From today's set of 23 raw images, it sure looks like Insight's mole has popped back out of Mars again, but not as much as before.


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