NASA InSight Mars Lander

Members of the InSight mission team are using a break in spacecraft operations to study new ways to get one of the spacecraft’s key instruments to resume burrowing into the Martian surface.
Scientists and engineers involved with InSight’s Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package instrument have been working for the last several months to get the instrument’s probe, or “mole,” to start moving into the surface again. The mole, intended to hammer to a depth of five meters below the surface, stopped in early March only about 30 centimeters below the surface.
Click to expand...

InSight mission seeking new ways to fix heat flow probe

Members of the InSight mission team are using a break in spacecraft operations to study new ways to get one of the spacecraft’s key instruments to resume burrowing into the Martian surface.
spacenews.com
 
They should try to move the position of the mole with the arm. I think that NASA were unlucky with the choice of where the Mole started to dig and hit the rock.
 
Mars InSight's 'Mole' Is Moving Again

NASA's InSight spacecraft has used its robotic arm to help its heat probe, known as "the mole," dig nearly 2 centimeters (3/4 of an inch) over the past week. While modest, the movement is significant: Designed to dig as much as 16 feet (5 meters) underground to gauge the heat escaping from the planet's interior, the mole has only managed to partially bury itself since it started hammering in February 2019.

The recent movement is the result of a new strategy, arrived at after extensive testing on Earth, which found that unexpectedly strong soil is holding up the mole's progress. The mole needs friction from surrounding soil in order to move: Without it, recoil from its self-hammering action will cause it to simply bounce in place. Pressing the scoop on InSight's robotic arm against the mole, a new technique called "pinning," appears to provide the probe with the friction it needs to continue digging.

Since Oct. 8, 2019, the mole has hammered 220 times over three separate occasions. Images sent down from the spacecraft's cameras have shown the mole gradually progressing into the ground. It will take more time - and hammering - for the team to see how far the mole can go.

The mole is part of an instrument called the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package, or HP3, which was provided by the German Aerospace Center (DLR).

"Seeing the mole's progress seems to indicate that there's no rock blocking our path," said HP3Principal Investigator Tilman Spohn of DLR. "That's great news! We're rooting for our mole to keep going."

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, leads the InSight mission. JPL has tested the robotic arm's movement using full-scale replicas of InSight and the mole. Engineers continue to test what would happen if the mole were to sink beneath the reach of the robotic arm. If it stops making progress, they might scrape soil on top of the mole, adding mass to resist the mole's recoil.

If no other options exist, they would consider pressing the scoop down directly on the top of the mole while trying to avoid the sensitive tether there; the tether provides power to and relays data from the instrument.

"The mole still has a way to go, but we're all thrilled to see it digging again," said Troy Hudson of JPL, an engineer and scientist who has led the mole recovery effort. "When we first encountered this problem, it was crushing. But I thought, 'Maybe there's a chance; let's keep pressing on.' And right now, I'm feeling giddy."

About InSight

JPL manages InSight for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. InSight is part of NASA's Discovery Program, managed by the agency's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Lockheed Martin Space in Denver built the InSight spacecraft, including its cruise stage and lander, and supports spacecraft operations for the mission.

A number of European partners, including France's Centre National d'Études Spatiales (CNES) and the German Aerospace Center (DLR), are supporting the InSight mission. CNES provided the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS) instrument to NASA, with the principal investigator at IPGP (Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris). Significant contributions for SEIS came from 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 the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3) instrument, with significant contributions from the Space Research Center (CBK) of the Polish Academy of Sciences and Astronika in Poland. Spain's Centro de Astrobiología (CAB) supplied the temperature and wind sensors.

More about InSight:

mars.nasa.gov/insight/

www.nasa.gov/insight/
 
It doesn't seem to be hitting rock, necessarily. And there just isn't a way to reel the probe back up and try again. The hammer mechanism isn't reversible.
 
Flyaway said:

The InSight mission logbook (February 2019 - July 2020)

In his logbook, HP3 Instrument Lead Tilman Spohn gives us the latest updates regarding the InSight mission and our HP3 instrument - the 'Mole' - which will hammer into the Martian surface.
www.dlr.de
Click to expand...

According to the above article it now looks like there was not a stone below where the Mole was digging down, so it must have been another problem that caused the Mole to stop working. This mystery gets stranger and stranger. :confused:
 

The InSight mission logbook

Tilman Spohn, Principal Investigator of the HP3 instrument on the InSight mission, has been providing us with regular updates on the 'Mole' since February 2019: what's happening on Mars right now? What's the weather like? How deep in the surface is the Mars 'Mole'?
www.dlr.de
 
Flyaway said:

The InSight mission logbook

Tilman Spohn, Principal Investigator of the HP3 instrument on the InSight mission, has been providing us with regular updates on the 'Mole' since February 2019: what's happening on Mars right now? What's the weather like? How deep in the surface is the Mars 'Mole'?
www.dlr.de
Click to expand...

Good news from Mars concerning the InSight Mole, it looks like the problem has now been solved and that the Mole is now below the surface. I cannot wait to see the first results from it whenever they are released.
 
Flyaway said:

The InSight mission logbook

Tilman Spohn, Principal Investigator of the HP3 instrument on the InSight mission, has been providing us with regular updates on the 'Mole' since February 2019: what's happening on Mars right now? What's the weather like? How deep in the surface is the Mars 'Mole'?
www.dlr.de
Click to expand...

Thanks for posting the InSight mission logbook blog, highly interesting Flyaway.
 
Flyaway said:
Unfortunately they’ve had to give up on their efforts to get the ‘mole’ buried any further under the surface of Mars.

NASA InSight’s ‘Mole’ Ends Its Journey on Mars - NASA

The heat probe hasn’t been able to gain the friction it needs to dig, but the mission has been granted an extension to carry on with its other science.
mars.nasa.gov
Click to expand...

That is sad news about InSights Mole, but I am exited about what the extended mission may bring.
 


Write your reply...

Similar threads

Back
Top Bottom