Updates InSight mission news and updates

[Nicholas Kang]

And the first ever "sounds" of Martian winds!

One of InSight's 7-foot (2.2 meter) wide solar panels was imaged by the lander's Instrument Deployment Camera, which is fixed to the elbow of its robotic arm.

Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The spectrogram of vibrations (frequency spectrum over time) recorded by two of the three sensors of the short period seismometer on NASA’s InSight lander on Mars. This spectrogram shows the first 1,000 seconds, roughly 20 minutes, of InSight’s first seismic data from the Red Planet. The vibrations of the lander are due to the wind passing over the spacecraft, particularly the large solar arrays. The annotation indicates the 20-second raw sound clip played earlier.

Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/CNES/UKSA/Imperial College London/Oxford

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 contrast has been enhanced in this image to better show the region where InSight landed on Nov. 26, 2018. The labels show the approximate position of NASA’s InSight lander in Elysium Planitia. Overlaid on top are the direction of the vibrations detected by InSight’s science instruments. The diagonal lines, faintly seen moving from upper left corner to the lower right corner of the image, show the paths of dust devils on the Martian surface. The vibrations recorded by InSight line up with the direction of the dust devil motion.

Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona/Imperial College London

A copy of one of the sensors on NASA InSight’s seismometer, compared to a 2-euro coin (about 1 inch wide). The short-period seismometer has three of these sensors.

Credits: Imperial College London

This illustration is a still frame from NASA's Experience InSight app (https://eyes.nasa.gov/insight). It shows in blue outline the location of the pressure sensor inlet, tucked inside the Wind and Thermal Shield. The pressure sensor inlet is part of InSight's Auxiliary Payload Sensor Subsystem.

Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

This illustration is a frame from NASA's Experience InSight app (https://eyes.nasa.gov/insight) that shows the location of the spacecraft's pressure sensor inlet, after the Wind and Thermal Shield (WTS) has been deployed. (The real InSight spacecraft has not yet deployed its instruments or the WTS.) The pressure sensor inlet is outlined in blue and the WTS (white dome) has been placed over InSight's seismometer on the ground on Mars. The sensor is part of InSight's Auxiliary Payload Sensor Subsystem.

Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

 

[Nicholas Kang]

Nothing important, just a selfie.

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).

Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

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.

But that shows the whole spacecraft on Mars for the first time. Looking good.

A mosaic of the workspace has also been created.

This mosaic, composed of 52 individual images from NASA's InSight lander, shows the workspace where the spacecraft will eventually set its science instruments.

Credits: 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).

"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.

Source: NASA

 

[mahdavi3d]

JPL : Mars InSight Lander Seen in First Images from Space

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. Image Credit: 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.
{...}

NASA's InSight lander on the surface of Mars imaged by the HiRISE camera onboard
NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
Full-size image

NASA's InSight parachute on the surface of Mars imaged by the HiRISE camera onboard
NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
Full-size image

NASA's InSight heat shield on the surface of Mars imaged by the HiRISE camera onboard
NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
Full-size image​

 

[Nicholas Kang]

First instrument placed on Mars!

NASA's InSight lander placed its seismometer on Mars on Dec. 19, 2018. This was the first time a seismometer had ever been placed onto the surface of another planet.

Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech​

New images from the lander show the seismometer on the ground, its copper-colored covering faintly illuminated in the Martian dusk. It looks as if all is calm and all is bright for InSight, heading into the end of the year.

This set of images from the Instrument Deployment Camera shows NASA's InSight lander placing its first instrument
onto the surface of Mars, completing a major mission milestone.

Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech​

To deploy the seismometer (also known as the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure, or SEIS) and the heat probe (also known as the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Probe, or HP3), engineers first had to verify the robotic arm that picks up and places InSight's instruments onto the Martian surface was working properly. Engineers tested the commands for the lander, making sure a model in the test bed at JPL deployed the instruments exactly as intended. Scientists also had to analyze images of the Martian terrain around the lander to figure out the best places to deploy the instruments.

On Tuesday, Dec. 18, InSight engineers sent up the commands to the spacecraft. On Wednesday, Dec. 19, the seismometer was gently placed onto the ground directly in front of the lander, about as far away as the arm can reach — 5.367 feet, or 1.636 meters, away).

A fish-eye view of NASA's InSight lander deploying its first instrument onto the surface of Mars, taken by the spacecraft's
Instrument Context Camera (ICC) on Dec. 19, 2018.

Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech​

In the coming days, the InSight team will work on leveling the seismometer, which is sitting on ground that is tilted 2 to 3 degrees. The first seismometer science data should begin to flow back to Earth after the seismometer is in the right position.

But engineers and scientists at JPL, the French national space agency Centre National d'Études Spatiales (CNES) and other institutions affiliated with the SEIS team will need several additional weeks to make sure the returned data are as clear as possible. For one thing, they will check and possibly adjust the seismometer's long, wire-lined tether to minimize noise that could travel along it to the seismometer. Then, in early January, engineers expect to command the robotic arm to place the Wind and Thermal Shield over the seismometer to stabilize the environment around the sensors.

Assuming that there are no unexpected issues, the InSight team plans to deploy the heat probe onto the Martian surface by late January. HP3 will be on the east side of the lander's work space, roughly the same distance away from the lander as the seismometer.

For now, though, the team is focusing on getting those first bits of seismic data (however noisy) back from the Martian surface.

 

[Notebook]

Nasa's InSight mission: Mars 'mole' put on planet's surface
By Jonathan Amos
BBC Science Correspondent

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-47227660

 

[kuddel]

Finally weather from a "remote spot"

https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/weather/

 

[kuddel]

Some of these "news" escaped our radar?

2019-03-07 Heat and Physical Properties Package[...]hold off from further hammering for about two weeks.

NASA's Mars InSight lander has a probe designed to dig up to 16 feet (5 meters) below the surface and measure heat coming from inside the planet. After beginning to hammer itself into the soil on Thursday, Feb. 28, the 16-inch-long (40-centimeter-long) probe — part of an instrument called the Heat and Physical Properties Package, or HP3 — got about three-fourths of the way out of its housing structure before stopping. No significant progress was seen after a second bout of hammering on Saturday, March 2. Data suggests the probe, known as a "mole," is at a 15-degree tilt.

2019-03-21 still little clarity as to whether the "mole" [...] is being blocked by a single rock or a layer of gravel

More imaging and testing are planned to further study InSight's heat probe, formally known as the Heat and Physical Properties Package (HP3). That testing includes a new round of hammering, which was last attempted March 2. Many ideas for freeing up the mole are being considered, all of which will require at least several more weeks of careful analysis.

There is still little clarity as to whether the "mole" — the nickname for the self-hammering spike that is part of HP3 — is being blocked by a single rock or a layer of gravel. There is also the possibility that the probe or its cable might be stuck on something inside the instrument's protective housing.

2019-04-11 InSight's HP3 instrument completed a new round of diagnostic hammering

InSight's Heat and Physical Properties Package (HP3) instrument completed a new round of diagnostic hammering into the Martian surface on March 26, 2019, while the spacecraft's seismometer listened in. The team working with the heat probe is continuing to analyze seismic data from this test. Based on the time between hammer strikes, scientists may be able to learn something new about what's obstructing the probe from digging farther underground.

Source(s): https://mars.nasa.gov/news/8419/more-testing-for-mars-insights-mole/?site=insight

 

[Notebook]

Its hit the Martian underground base. Have they tried tapping in Morse?

N.

 

[Notebook]

Nasa's InSight lander 'detects first Marsquake'
By Jonathan Amos
BBC Science Correspondent

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-48031975

 

[richfororbit]

I was checking Insight, just now. The weather report shows it to be pretty damn cold.

24F in C is -4.5

https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/weather/

 

[Notebook]

Nasa probe determines Mars' internal structure

Scientists now have absolute numbers for the thickness of the Red Planet's crust, mantle and core.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[GLS]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1539329654535819266

 

[GLS]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1604955574659035136

 

[kuddel]

InSight: ...in case you hear this: Bye bye!

 

[Gargantua2024]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1605229002838482945