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Scientists and engineers have a new plan to get the NASA InSight thermal probe, also known as the "mole", digging again on Mars. Part of an instrument called together heat flux and physical properties (HP3), the mole is a self-hammering tip designed to dig up to 5 meters below the surface and record the temperature.
Since February 28, 2019, the mole has not been able to dig more than 30 cm below the Martian surface. The support structure of the device prevents the LG cameras from viewing the mole. The team therefore plans to use InSight. robotic arm to lift the structure. Depending on what they see, the team can use the InSight robotic arm to help the mole later this summer.
HP3 is one of many InSight experiments, all designed to give scientists a first glimpse of the deep inside of the red planet. InSight also includes a seismometer that recently recorded its first earthquake on April 6, 2019, followed by its largest seismic signal so far at 7:23 pm. PAH (22:23 EDT) May 22, 2019 – which is believed to be a magnitude 3.0 earthquake.
In recent months, tests and analysis have been conducted at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, which is leading the InSight mission, and at the German Aerospace Center (DLR), which supplies HP3to understand what keeps the mole from digging. Team members now believe that the most likely cause is an unexpected lack of soil friction around InSight – something very different from the ground seen in other parts of Mars. The mole is designed so that the loose soil flows around it, adding a friction that prevents its recoil, allowing it to dig. Without enough friction, he will bounce back.
"JPL and DLR engineers have worked hard to evaluate the problem," said Lori Glaze, director of NASA's Planetary Science Division. "Moving the support structure will help them collect more information and try at least one possible solution."
The lifting sequence will begin at the end of June, the arm grabbing the support structure (InSight has recently performed motion tests). During a week, the arm will lift the structure in three stages. He will take pictures and return them so that the engineers can make sure that the mole will not be removed from the ground during the movement of the structure. If it is removed from the ground, the mole can not return.
The procedure is not without risk. However, the mission leaders determined that these next steps were necessary for the instrument to work again.
"Moving the support structure will give the team a better idea of what's going on, but it could also allow us to test a possible solution," said HP.3 Principal Investigator Tilman Spohn of DLR. "We plan to use InSight's robotic arm to press the ground, our calculations have shown that it should add friction to the ground near the mole."
A Q & A session with team members on the mole and efforts to save it is available at the following address: https://mars.nasa.gov/news/8444/common- issues-about-insights-mol /? = Site insight
Test how the arm of InSight will push on Mars: In a JPL lab, a replica of NASA's InSight robotic arm is backing up with its shovel on crushed garnet near a replica of the "mole" self- hammering the spaceship. Engineers believe that such pressures on the Martian soil could help the mole to dig by increasing friction of the surrounding soil. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech. Complete picture and legend>
JPL manages InSight for the direction of NASA's scientific missions. InSight is part of NASA's Discovery program, run by the agency's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Lockheed Martin Space in Denver has built the InSight probe, including its cruise and landing stages, and supports probe operations for the mission.
A number of European partners, including the French National Space Research Center (CNES) and the German Aerospace Center (DLR), support the InSight mission. CNES has provided NASA with the seismic experiment for indoor structures (SEIS), in collaboration with the principal investigator of the IPGP (Paris Institute of Earth Physics). ). Important contributions for SEIS come from the IPGP; the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS) in Germany; the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich) in Switzerland; Imperial College London and Oxford University in the United Kingdom; and JPL. DLR provided heat flux package and physical properties (HP3) instrument, with important contributions from the Space Research Center (CBK) of the Polish Academy of Sciences and Astronika in Poland. The Spanish Centro de Astrobiología (CAB) provided the temperature and wind sensors.
Media contact
Andrew Good
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California
818-393-2433
[email protected]
Alana Johnson
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1501
[email protected]
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