InSight Surface Operations, 26 Nov 2018- 21 Dec 2022 Options

[Ant103]

This is odd. I updated the page after cache erase, and now I have the pictures…

[nprev]

The location 'race' is interesting, but the money quote there to me was that the elbow cam will begin surveying the surroundings next week.

[ChrisC]

We didn't see any new images appear on the "raw images" site during Sol 2. I'm guessing they must have taken some and downlinked them. Therefore, it appears that we do not have the near-real-time pipeline of images to the public like we've seen on some previous missions, right?

EDIT: I don't want to clutter the forum with a new post, and this forum doesn't support "likes", so ... thank you Doug for your insightful reply! (immediately below)

[djellison]

right?

There are huge number of reasons that would cause there to be no images for a given sol. Spacecraft issues, DSN or Relay issues, to just straight up not commanding the acquisition of any images on a given sol.

The InSight raw image page is probably the best version of a raw image pipeline I've ever seen. There is no reason to suggest the pipeline is down right now.

[volcanopele]

We were warned that this would be a slower paced mission than we're used to.

[JRehling]

I hope this is at least 51% relevant for this thread… I noticed last night that the ExoMars rover's landing platform will also have a seismometer onboard. With a landing date of April 2021, this creates a piquant proximity to Insight's end of main mission. It would surely be a value-add to have two working seismometers on Mars at the same time, so that the location of any large quakes could be pinpointed. It looks like they may overlap either for a short time, if Insight functions for just two years, or perhaps much longer if Insight has the kind of extended lifespan that other martian missions have had.

[centsworth_II]

What happened to the "raw" images page ?

I see images using your link, but just the six. Three of each view. I wonder when new images will be coming.

[Steve G]

This mission will definitely deviate from what we are used to. First, I'm still scratching my head at the torturously slow (three month) deployment of the two surface experiments. Most notably, this is not a picture taking mission. Furthermore, if it hadn't been for the delay over the seismometer, we'd be looking at black and white pictures only. The InSight project upgraded their cameras from single-channel greyscale to RGB colour by replacing the detectors with a Bayer-pattern version of the same resolution as the original detectors. This mission is not designed to take pretty pictures. It's designed to explore the interior of Mars. That will take some adjustments from the rovers where we get a new panorama every few sols.

[Explorer1]

They have to be much more careful with the robotic arm than Phoenix was. The latter could (and did) lose soil out of the scoop due to wind, or just dumped it on the deck of the lander because of how clumpy it was. InSight needs to do the reverse, and carefully take the seismometer, its cover, and heat flow probe into their appropriate spots. As I mentioned above, there is no spacecraft-killing winter at this latitude, so they really have no need to rush.

[PaulM]

This mission will definitely deviate from what we are used to. First, I'm still scratching my head at the torturously slow (three month) deployment of the two surface experiments. Most notably, this is not a picture taking mission. Furthermore, if it hadn't been for the delay over the seismometer, we'd be looking at black and white pictures only. The InSight project upgraded their cameras from single-channel greyscale to RGB colour by replacing the detectors with a Bayer-pattern version of the same resolution as the original detectors. This mission is not designed to take pretty pictures. It's designed to explore the interior of Mars. That will take some adjustments from the rovers where we get a new panorama every few sols.

Presumably there will be curiosity style selfies taken by the camera on the instrument arm to check that the instruments did not move on the deck during the landing and to provide 3D maps of the instrument deployment area.

[Phil Stooke]

Keep in mind that on a day when we don't get a new image, other things are going on. I don't know what those things might be on any given day, but over the next week or so the arm and the instruments are probably being powered on and checked very carefully to ensure everything is in good shape. Nobody likes images more than I do, and we will see them soon.

Phil

[MahFL]

... First, I'm still scratching my head at the torturously slow (three month) deployment of the two surface experiments...

Well in reality they are going to be deploying the instruments 2 or 3 times in the sandbox here on Earth, before they do it with Insight on Mars, so that takes time.

[Blue Sky]

Between the two pictures, a small rectangular piece of equipment has rotated to the right just in front of the large square black thing, which reveals more of two mysterious white objects that look to be on the ground. I do not see any other white patches in the distance.

[James Sorenson]

What is so mysterious about it? That "white patch" is a piece of lander deck hardware.

[elakdawalla]

Another thing that is different about InSight is that from the beginning, they are not operating on Mars Time. They're working early and late slide sols as needed, but to keep operational costs lower they did not staff up to the level that would be required for Mars Time operations. So they'll spend some chunk of their time effectively in restricted sols.