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

[xflare]

I cleaned up all the fisheye 'lens cover' images and then the 'cover removed' images and put them in a gif

Is it my imagination, or does it look like there is actually more dust on the lens after the cover was removed?

[peter.neaum]

Is it my imagination, or does it look like there is actually more dust on the lens after the cover was removed?

It does appear to be the case. I wonder if there's a static charge or such occurring?
For a camera with a (removed) lens cover, there's quite a bit of dust!
Here a quick animation showing the two frames so far - Sol4, 12:53:51 PM vs 13:27:07 PM

[Station]

I decided not to wait any longer for Mars' dust devils mercy and personally cleaned up the lens a bit





Also below some "upright" perspective

[Decepticon]

Great work!

[Floyd]

If static charge is a problem attracting particles, maybe future lens designs for landing missions would include an electrically conductive lens coating (atomically thin metal and organics are transparent)? Or is the entire craft charged with very slow discharge through feet?

[nprev]

Very nicely done, Station!

Re static charge, it's of course too early to tell if this is happening or not. Never seemed to be a problem for cams on other landed spacecraft, though they also didn't land dead square in dustbowls.

If that is what's going on here then I'd expect it the charge to gradually dissipate over time since the lander is in contact with the surface and all of InSight's components are electrically bonded with each other to form a reference ground plane, like any other aerospace vehicle.

[elakdawalla]

I asked Justin Maki what is happening to the images on their way to the website. He said:

The images are transmitted from Mars as color JPEGs. The images on the website are decompressed versions with the light stretch to make it easy for people to view. We are still fine-tuning the processing of the raw images but it is just a simple histogram percent contrast stretch. Once the camera covers are opened we may tweak the stretch parameters, depending on how things look.

[JRehling]

Re static charge, it's of course too early to tell if this is happening or not. Never seemed to be a problem for cams on other landed spacecraft, though they also didn't land dead square in dustbowls.

Another interesting bit of context is the recent end of the massive dust storm. Maybe dust accumulates charge during such events and tends to lose it over subsequent months and years. There is research supporting the occurrence of lightning in martian dust storms. There was, I think, at least one martian year in every other cases between a major dust storm and the other seven successful landings (2001 until the MERs landed being just over a martian year). In fact, the possibility of an electrical discharge killing the Soviet Mars 3 lander has previously been raised, and the Mars 2 lander failed for yet-unknown reasons. Those entries happened before the 1971 dust storm had ended.

Those clumps of dust may just be a clue as to what happened to the Soviet missions in 1971.

[HSchirmer]

Maybe dust accumulates charge during such events and tends to lose it over subsequent months and years.

There was a Sky and Telescope article about dust storms and static charge-
Dust Storm Electricity Might Forge Perchlorates on Mars - https://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronomy-n...orates-on-mars/

Which is based on a research paper-
Forming perchlorates on Mars through plasma chemistry during dust events - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/artic...gcid=rss_sd_all

Curiously, perchlorate enhances dry conductivity and is used as a food additive to help dissipate static charge buildup on plastic and cardboard food containers (i.e. your Cheerios don't stick to the plastic bag)

[Mercure]

It is a bit ironic that Humanity put a lander on Mars but didn't manage to give it a dust cover that keeps dust out... Anyway, this mission is not about the views. The images are perfectly serviceable for putting the seismometer and mole on the ground.

[RoverDriver]

It is a bit ironic that Humanity put a lander on Mars but didn't manage to give it a dust cover that keeps dust out...

It has been explained in this thread how the camera and lens cap was designed and why. If you have good ideas, I suggest click on this link: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/opportunities/

Paolo

[atomoid]

The apparent descent thruster scour marks seem to have exhumed a lot of soil around the rock, which itself appears to be almost perfectly placed that it could focus a blowback of dust back up in the direction of the ICC.

[Phil Stooke]

Good point about the rock!

Phil

[kenny]

Emily quotes Justin Maki above as saying : Once the camera covers are opened ...
So maybe the dust specks are on the cover only, not on the lens?

[djellison]

The ICC cover has been opened. The current dust is on the lens.

It will probably dissipate with time. It has already begun to in just the single sol since it was deployed.