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The report shares the temperature, wind and air pressure recorded by the undercarriage. It's winter on Mars now, so the maximum temperature is 2 degrees Fahrenheit, with a minimum of minus 138. The winds have reached 37.8 miles at the time.
So, it's cold at home, rest assured that your temperature changes are not as abrupt as what InSight has to endure.
"The InSight lander is close to the Martian equator – just north of the equator – and therefore lives a Martian winter," said Don Banfield, Mission Manager for Meteorological Sensors of the # 39; lander.
InSight has something that other missions on the Martian surface do not have. The sensors, called the auxiliary payload subsystem, can provide weather information 24 hours a day, recording data every second of the day and sending it back to Earth.
The sensors are actually replacement parts that were renovated during the construction of the Curiosity rover. They are 10 times more sensitive than those used on the Viking and Pathfinder undercarriages.
Inside the undercarriage is an air pressure sensor and the deck features two wind and temperature sensors.
Designed for a two-year mission, InSight will provide scientists with unique information about seasonal changes on Mars. This will also give them a better idea of the noise that could disrupt the data collected by the heat flow sensor and the seismometer. The seismometer is particularly sensitive to changes in atmospheric pressure and wind, which could prevent it from doing its job: detect earthquakes on Mars.
"It gives you the feeling of visiting an extraterrestrial place," said Don Banfield, who heads InSight's weather science at Cornell University, in a statement. "Mars has familiar atmospheric phenomena that are still very different from those of the Earth."
Weather sensors can also help determine the amount of dust and sand raised by Martian winds. Currently, scientists do not know how much wind it takes to lift dust from the surface or create dust storms.
The dust of devils, or whirlpools, leave streaks on the surface of the planet as they move, and the information collected by InSight could help scientists to study them. The dust devils are common where InSight has landed, so he can watch and study them, even hundreds of feet away.
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