The sound of another world
The sound of another world
Capturing the Martian wind in the hand of InSight.
It's been days since his successful landing in Elysium Planitia, and little by little, step by step, it is starting up. His arm is already extended and doing the "exercises" prior to his delicate task of deploying his two main instruments in the dusty plain, which will take place within several weeks. We must wait a bit to see it in action, but for now we have a first advance, a curiosity if you prefer, but above all a gift for the ears. Literally.
It was not something planned, but for a probe designed to capture all the movements of the planet, perhaps it was inevitable that it would also do so with those generated by the pressure of the air. And that's what he did last December 1, when several of his sensors registered the tenuous vibration that the wind that was blowing at that moment, with an estimated speed of between 5 and 7 meters per second, generated over InShight. We do not hear the sound itself, but the pressure that it exerted on the probe converted into sounds, but with a little imagination it is almost possible to feel it directly.Two were the instruments responsible for this auditory rule. One was the air pressure sensor, part of the APSS instrument (Auxiliary Payload Sensor Subsystem) and that directly captured the impact of the wind. But undoubtedly more interesting were the data arrived from the second, the seismometer known as SIX (Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure). This is one of the ones that will later be picked up by the probe arm and deposited on land to monitor the possible seismic activity of the planet, but it is so sensitive that it was even able, in its current position, to detect the vibration generated by the wind on the solar panels.
The latter is important, since it will allow technicians to take into account this "noise", the vibrations generated by the wind, to be able to discard them and not interfere in their real goal, to record those that come from inside the planet. And that's as much as it could cause in the protective hood of SIX as the movements generated in the probe itself, and that could be transmitted through the ground to the seismometer, located next to it. In the complex world of planetary exploration, everything is susceptible to being valuable.
"InSight acts like a giant ear"explains Tom Pike, member of the scientific team."The solar panels on the sides of the module respond to fluctuations in wind pressure. It is as if he were cupping his ears and hearing the wind of Mars blowing. When we observe the direction of the vibrations of the lander coming from the solar panels, it coincides with the expected direction" A first gift from this newcomer explorer, a foretaste of this new vision of the red planet he wants to offer us. In the sound of the wind, it will soon become the sound of the plenary itself.
The sounds of the wind.
One of the solar panels deployed, whose vibrations were covered by SIX. In the upper part the robotic arm.
First thermal, SIX, responsible for capturing the vibrations of the panels. Behind the dome that will be placed on the once on the ground, and that aims to keep it safe from the wind and thermal changes. On the left HP3, which will also be placed on the surface to measure the interior heat of the planet.NASA InSight Lander 'Hears' Martian Winds
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