Welcome to the dusty Elysium Planitia: InSight is ready to do science on Mars

Welcome to the dusty Elysium Planitia: InSight is ready to do science on Mars https://danielmarin.naukas.com/files/2018/12/mars.nasa_.gov_insight-raw-images_surface_sol_0004_icc_C000M0004_596888328EDR_F0000_0461M_.png

The eighth NASA probe that has landed successfully on Mars is in perfect condition. Since landing on Elysium Planitia on November 26, 2018 at 19:44 UTC, InSight has communicated with Earth several times using the Mars Odyssey 2001 orbiter and Mars Reconnaisance Orbiter. And, of course, he has also sent more images of his two small cameras, IDC and ICC. Many of us were waiting for the protective cover of the ICC camera to be removed (Instrument Context Camera) to be able to see the landing area more clearly without the presence of annoying dust. And, indeed, the cover fell, but the dust was still there. Although, yes, in smaller amounts. And is that Elysium Planitia has proven to be as flat as expected, but also very, very dusty and some regolith has stuck to the lens of the camera, although the mission managers expect the particles to come off during the next few days and weeks by wind action.

Image of the InSight skyline captured on November 30, 2018 at 13:27 local solar time during Sun 4 of the mission (NASA / JPL-Caltech).

InSight is tilted 4 ° because it has landed on the inside wall of a shallow crater filled with dust and sand (the probe can tolerate slopes of up to 15 °, so tilt is not a problem). The legs of InSight (Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport) - at least one of them - are also more sunk in the regolith than expected, especially if we compare this mission with others landers Static like Phoenix or the Viking probes. The visible leg appears with regolith almost to the edge, or what is the same, is sunken about 7.5 centimeters. The landing of Curiosity in 2012 showed that the rocks pushed by the exhaust of the engines can be a danger - to be told to the Spanish instrument REMS - but until now nobody had been very concerned about the Martian dust. It is seen that Mars can be as dusty as the Moon. After worrying about the lunar regolith at the beginning of the space age, the unmanned missions Luna, Surveyor and Lunojod, in addition to the Apollo manned missions, showed that the moon dust was more compact than previously believed and that no ship was leaving. to sink on the surface of the Moon. But, paradoxes of fate, now comes InSight and teaches us that the Martian regolith is a factor to be taken into account. In fact, the landing leg of InSight has been buried in the ground more than any lunar ship, manned or not (obviously the gravity and characteristics of the regolith are very different in both worlds).

One of InSight's legs buried in the Martian regolith. Welcome to the dusty Elysium Planitia (NASA / JPL-Caltech).

InSight on Mars with the SEIS and HP3 instruments deployed (I love that NASA feels the need to indicate that this image is an "illustration") (NASA).

It is clear that the twelve 300 newton thrust hydrazine propellants each have raised a good amount of dust. The issue is more important than it seems because remember that InSight is the first mission whose two main instruments must be deposited on the surface using the robot arm, so choosing the right place for them is a crucial issue. At least the area seems esatr free of rocks. The IDA robot arm (Instrument Deployment Arm) has already "awakened" and has already made some timid movements before its final deployment. This arm was built for the canceled mission Mars Surveyor 2001 and, in turn, is similar to that of the ill-fated Mars Polar Lander of 1998. It was designed to put on the surface the small Marie Curie rover, but has been recycled for InSight. The arm will use a magnetic hook to seize the French seismometer SIX -the main instrument of the mission-, its WTS protective cover and the German instrument HP3 and deposit them on the ground (by the way, the hook is very safe, since you have to apply electric current for release load). The arm has a shovel that, unlike the Phoenix and Viking missions, is not essential for the mission, but could be used to clean the ground of rocks and dust before placing the instruments. Although, in view of the huge amount of dust, maybe it turns out to be essential. The presence of so much dust will affect especially the German instrument HP3, equipped with a "mole" that must be introduced between 3 and 5 meters on the Martian soil to measure the thermal gradient of the planet.

Image of the probe cover taken in Sun 4. On the left is the SIX instrument (NASA / JPL-Caltech).

Image of the IDC camera taken in Sun 4 where the robot arm, its shovel and the magnetic hook and the sky of Mars (NASA / JPL-Caltech).

InSight IDA robot arm (NASA).

Detail of the magnetic hook (NASA).

The precise sequence of the deployment of the SIX instrument, followed by its WTS deck and the HP3 instrument, will depend on the detailed analysis of the landing zone, but SIX is expected to be on the surface between twenty and thirty days after landing. It will be followed by WTS within ten days and, finally, by the HP3 instrument between 45 and 60 soles after landing. On the other hand, the IDC camera (Instrument Deployment Camera), placed on the robot arm, has sent new images of the Martian sky, in addition to the instrument cover. Recall that the two InSight cameras, ICC and IDC, are "leftover" material from the Curiosity mission and that they were originally built for the MER Spirit and Opportunity rovers (IDC was a Navcam camera and ICC a Hazcam). Both cameras were modified so they can take color images and have a 1024 x 1024 pixel sensor. ICC has a field of vision of 124º x 124º, while the IDC field is 45º x 45º. Compared to Curiosity's Mastcam they are almost toy, but the goal of InSight is to study the interior of the red planet, not to take beautiful images.

Situation of the InSight cameras (NASA).

Position of the ICC camera in the fuselage of InSight (NASA).

InSight became during its first day in Mars in the probe that more electrical energy has generated (4,558 watt-hours), so it is expected that the mission may last much longer than planned due to this surplus of energy provided by its two Ultra-Flex panels of 4.2 meters in diameter that were deployed about twenty minutes after landing (the Phoenix probe had the same panels, but was located much further north). The computers of InSight also work perfectly, as well as the flash memory of 16 GB of capacity. InSight uses two redundant computers that use a RAD 750 chip at 115.5 MHz (if you think it is not enough, remember that Phoenix used a RAD6000 at 20 MHz), based on the Power PC 750 and similar to the one used in the MRO, Curiosity and MAVEN. The operating system, as usual, is the VxWorks and runs programs written in C and C ++.

InSight has broken the record in electricity generation of a Martian probe. And yes, the graph has an error because the Viking did not carry solar panels, but two RTGs each (NASA).

InSight solar panels (NASA).

All the instruments of the probe seem to be in perfect condition, although we will have to wait until SIX and HP3 are on the surface to claim victory. In the same way, the Spanish meteorological station TWINS (Temperature and Wind Sensors for InSight) It also seems to work without problems. As a personal note, I had the pleasure of attending the InSight landing relay from the Astrobiology Center (CAB) thanks to the kind invitation of the indefatigable Jorge Pla and I could see first-hand the joy of the TWINS team of researchers in learning that their "little one" was on Mars. Now that we have left behind the most critical phase of the mission, InSight can dedicate itself to its main objective: to know what the interior of the red planet is like.

Spanish weather station TWINS (CAB).

TWINS sensor (NASA).

More images:

https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/multimedia/raw-images/?order=sol+desc%2Cdate_taken+desc&per_page=50&page=0&mission=insight