Category Archives: Mars

Mars: Insight deploys solar arrays + Cliffs expose ice layers + Successful deep space CubeSat demo

NASA’s Insight lander, which arrived on Mars on Monday, is moving quickly towards operational status. The solar panels have been deployed and in the

… coming days, the mission team will unstow InSight’s robotic arm and use the attached camera to snap photos of the ground so that engineers can decide where to place the spacecraft’s scientific instruments. It will take two to three months before those instruments are fully deployed and sending back data.

In the meantime, InSight will use its weather sensors and magnetometer to take readings from its landing site at Elysium Planitia — its new home on Mars.

More at InSight Is Catching Rays on Mars – NASA JPL.

“The Instrument Deployment Camera (IDC), located on the robotic arm of NASA’s InSight lander, took this picture of the Martian surface on Nov. 26, 2018, the same day the spacecraft touched down on the Red Planet. The camera’s transparent dust cover is still on in this image, to prevent particulates kicked up during landing from settling on the camera’s lens. This image was relayed from InSight to Earth via NASA’s Odyssey spacecraft, currently orbiting Mars.” Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech. Full image and caption

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Here’s a report from Bob Zimmerman about the landing: November 27, 2018 Zimmerman/Batchelor podcast | Behind The Black

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As an aside here, Bob also has an interesting posting about Mars water. While it has been known for many decades that Mars has substantial amounts of water in its surface, much has been learned in recent years about the extent and distribution of that water and much more remains to be discovered. An example of this is the recent finding in Mars orbiter images of layers of water ice exposed on a number of cliffs in the mid-latitudes of the planet:

From the JPL release:

The ice was likely deposited as snow long ago. The deposits are exposed in cross section as relatively pure water ice, capped by a layer one to two yards (or meters) thick of ice-cemented rock and dust. They hold clues about Mars’ climate history. They also may make frozen water more accessible than previously thought to future robotic or human exploration missions.

As Bob notes, such easily accessible water resources will be useful for more than scientific research:

There will come a time when Martian settlers will set up operations here, mining the water for their use. This could very well be extremely valuable real estate on Mars.

“A cross-section of underground ice is exposed at the steep slope that appears bright blue in this enhanced-color view from the HiRISE camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The scene is about 550 yards wide. The scarp drops about 140 yards from the level ground in the upper third of the image.” Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UA/USGS › Full image and caption

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The CubeSats launched with Insight proved their worth by relaying communications to earth during the lander’s descent and touch down. Furthermore, they have proved the worth of CubeSats for deep space exploration in general, opening up the potential for lower cost and more frequent exploration missions throughout the solar system:

From the NASA JPL release:

Neither of the MarCO CubeSats carry science instruments, but that didn’t stop the team from testing whether future CubeSats could perform useful science at Mars. As MarCO-A flew by, it conducted some impromptu radio science, transmitting signals through the edge of Mars’ atmosphere. Interference from the Martian atmosphere changes the signal when received on Earth, allowing scientists to determine how much atmosphere is present and, to some degree, what it’s made of.

“CubeSats have incredible potential to carry cameras and science instruments out to deep space,” said John Baker, JPL’s program manager for small spacecraft. “They’ll never replace the more capable spacecraft NASA is best known for developing. But they’re low-cost ride-alongs that can allow us to explore in new ways.”

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Scott Manley gives an overview of the Insight mission:

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Videos: Follow the Insight Mission landing on Mars today [Update]

[ Update: The landing was a success: NASA InSight Lander Arrives on Martian Surface | NASA

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 Nov. 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. Credits: NASA/JPL-CalTech

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NASA’s Insight spacecraft will set down on the Martian surface today Nov. 26th at around noon PST (3 p.m. EST). NASA TV will provide live coverage:

InSight was launched on May 5th and marks the first landing of a NASA spacecraft on the Red Planet since the Curiosity rover arrived in 2012. InSight’s mission, which should last at least two years, is to study Mars’ deep interior. The studies will help scientists better understand the formation of Mars as well as other rocky worlds, including Earth.

InSight is accompanied by two mini-spacecraft in a test named Mars Cube One (MarCO). This is the first deep-space mission for CubeSats. The MarCO satellites will not land but instead will fly by Mars and attempt to relay data from InSight during its entry into the planet’s atmosphere and the landing sequence.

For the key events during the landing, see NASA InSight Landing on Mars: Milestones | NASA.

Here is a preview of the Insight landing:

NASA’s Mars Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) spacecraft is on track for a touchdown on the surface of the Red Planet on Nov. 26. One day before landing, the mission team provides an update and explanations of everything that must go right during the entry, descent and landing of the spacecraft. 

And here is a Q&A with the Insight mission team:

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Mars: Insight news conferences + Mars 2020 landing target + Soft landslides

NASA TV will webcast two programs today about the upcoming touch down of the Insight lander on Mars: NASA Live: InSight Mars Landing | NASA 

NASA’s InSight lander is scheduled to touch down on Mars at approximately 3 p.m. EST, Monday, Nov. 26. NASA TV live coverage of the InSight Mars landing will begin at 2 p.m. Eastern (7 p.m. UTC). Upcoming briefings:

Wednesday, Nov. 21, 1 p.m. EST: InSight Mars Lander news conference: Mission engineering overview.
Wednesday, Nov. 21, 2 p.m. EST: InSight Mars Lander news conference: Mission science overview

It will take about 8 minutes for signals from Insight to reach earth during its descent through the atmosphere and the touch down on the surface. Here’s an item about the communications systems that allow for ground controllers to know what happened : How NASA Will Know When InSight Touches Down – NASA JPL

 

Insight landing sequence: Credits: Emily Lakdawalla for The Planetary Society

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The Mars 2020 Rover, which is similar in design and capabilities to the Curiosity rover, now knows where it will land: NASA Announces Landing Site for Mars 2020 Rover – NASA JPL

This Mars map depicts the final four locations under consideration for the landing site of Mars 2020. The topographic map of Mars was created by the Mars Orbital Laser Altimeter (MOLA) on board the robot Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft. MOLA measured heights on Mars by precisely determining the time it took for a low power laser beam to bounce off the surface. Image Credit: NASA/MGS/MOLA Science Team. Larger view

Speaking of Curiosity, here is a recent update on its activities: Curiosity on the Move Again | NASA.

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Bob Zimmerman examines an image taken of the Martian surface and highlights what is similar and different between geologic processes on Mars versus on the Earth: The soft landslides of Mars | Behind The Black

The light gravity of Mars, combined with different materials, a lot of dust, and a geological history different from Earth, produces events that — though reminiscent of similar geological events on Earth — are definitely not the same.

Landslide in Southern Mid-Latitude Crater – HiRISE

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Mars: Insight landing on Nov.26, ESA ExoMars landing site selected, + Pits and Caves

NASA’s Insight lander is set to settled down on the Mars surface on November 26th. Emily Lakdawalla gives a preview of the event from : What to Expect When InSight Lands on Mars | The Planetary Society

InSight’s will be a throwback landing, simpler than Curiosity’s and identical to Phoenix’s. It will employ heat shield, parachute, and landing rockets, but no fancy entry guidance or Skycrane maneuver. Even if it’s simpler, it’s still terrifying, a period during which decades of work comes down to minutes of automated maneuvers that’ll transform a space-faring flying saucer into a sessile lander.

More at

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The European Space Agency recently announced the decision on where the ExoMars rover will land in 2021:

ExoMars is to land at Oxia Planum.

Bob Zimmerman explains the reasons for the site selection: The ExoMars 2020 landing site | Behind The Black

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Bob also discusses pits and lava tube caves on the Red Planet: More Pits on Mars! | Behind The Black

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Chasing New Horizons: Inside the Epic First Mission to Pluto

 

Curiosity rover sends a grand panorama from Vera Rubin Ridge

Check out the latest 360 degree panorama of the Martian landscape taken by the rover Curiosity:

Curiosity Surveys a Mystery Under Dusty Skies

After snagging a new rock sample on Aug. 9, NASA’s Curiosity rover surveyed its surroundings on Mars, producing a 360-degree panorama of its current location on Vera Rubin Ridge.

The panorama includes umber skies, darkened by a fading global dust storm. It also includes a rare view by the Mast Camera of the rover itself, revealing a thin layer of dust on Curiosity’s deck. In the foreground is the rover’s most recent drill target, named “Stoer” after a town in Scotland near where important discoveries about early life on Earth were made in lakebed sediments.

The new drill sample delighted Curiosity’s science team, because the rover’s last two drill attempts were thwarted by unexpectedly hard rocks. Curiosity started using a new drill method earlier this year to work around a mechanical problem. Testing has shown it to be as effective at drilling rocks as the old method, suggesting the hard rocks would have posed a problem no matter which method was used.

This 360-degree panorama was taken on Aug. 9 by NASA’s Curiosity rover at its location on Vera Rubin Ridge. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Full image and caption

There’s no way for Curiosity to determine exactly how hard a rock will be before drilling it, so for this most recent drilling activity, the rover team made an educated guess. An extensive ledge on the ridge was thought to include harder rock, able to stand despite wind erosion; a spot below the ledge was thought more likely to have softer, erodible rocks. That strategy seems to have panned out, but questions still abound as to why Vera Rubin Ridge exists in the first place.

The rover has never encountered a place with so much variation in color and texture, according to Ashwin Vasavada, Curiosity’s project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. JPL leads the Mars Science Laboratory mission that Curiosity is a part of.

“The ridge isn’t this monolithic thing — it has two distinct sections, each of which has a variety of colors,” Vasavada said. “Some are visible to the eye and even more show up when we look in near-infrared, just beyond what our eyes can see. Some seem related to how hard the rocks are.”

The best way to discover why these rocks are so hard is to drill them into a powder for the rover’s two internal laboratories. Analyzing them might reveal what’s acting as “cement” in the ridge, enabling it to stand despite wind erosion. Most likely, Vasavada said, groundwater flowing through the ridge in the ancient past had a role in strengthening it, perhaps acting as plumbing to distribute this wind-proofing “cement.”

Much of the ridge contains hematite, a mineral that forms in water. There’s such a strong hematite signal that it drew the attention of NASA orbiters like a beacon. Could some variation in hematite result in harder rocks? Is there something special in the ridge’s red rocks that makes them so unyielding?

For the moment, Vera Rubin Ridge is keeping its secrets to itself.

Two more drilled samples are planned for the ridge in September. After that, Curiosity will drive to its scientific end zone: areas enriched in clay and sulfate minerals higher up Mt. Sharp. That ascent is planned for early October.

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