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

[PaulH51]

Sol 48 images are on the server link
Looks like they called for a change of tack and positioned the grapple over the tether pinning mass. Not sure if there are more images in the sequence, but they appear to have moved the arm away from SEIS, so it looks like there will be no more.
I guess they will review these images to see how close they were to alignment and then decide the next step.

Here is a processed and reduced GIF using some of the IDC frame

[MahFL]

Odd they could not grab the ball, they must have done it dozens of times on Earth.

[MahFL]

So what's the rational behind the slit on the small ball, for it seems that without it the ball would have slipped through?

Maybe a thermal expansion thing.

[atomoid]

GIF of the sol48 action from the ICC view:

[Zeehond]

Odd they could not grab the ball, they must have done it dozens of times on Earth.

Well, according to elakdawalla a few posts back who quoted Bruce Banerdt, they frequently miss the "grab" on earth too. I guess they will have to do some more testing to make the procedure work successfully more often or maybe they will just accept it takes a few tries. We'll see.

[stevesliva]

https://twitter.com/insight_ipgp SEIS twitter, and I used Google Chrome's offer to translate for me.

The latest posts show work on Earth to get the grapple stowed and mention the grapple positioning on Mars is an attempt to ensure the positioning "if the choice is made to use this technique."
https://twitter.com/InSight_IPGP/status/1085280443388198912

[MahFL]

Another miss...

[paraisosdelsiste...]

New images down

[PaulH51]

Animation of the grapple being successfully stowed on sol 50.
The lower 50% of the IDC images has been cropped

[MahFL]

New images down

They win the prize !

[vikingmars]

Some dust cleaning events ?
(Sol 08 - Sol 26 - Sol 50)

[SFJCody]

What sort of things do you think they might do with the cameras once all the important instruments are deployed and working? Mosaic of the soil near the lander? A nice time lapse showing a complete Martian sol at maybe one frame a minute?

[PaulH51]

What sort of things do you think they might do with the cameras once all the important instruments are deployed and working?

Good question: I got the impression that once the robotic arm had completed the deployment of the instruments it would return to the deck for the remainder of the mission. If that's the case, then the IDC camera will have a limited view of one section of the horizon that we saw just after landing, but without SEIS on the deck the view of the terrain will be a little wider. The wide angle ICC camera is finally getting rid of some of its dust (well spotted vikingmars) but we probably have a while to wait before it gets fully clean (if at all)... I guess they could use the ICC to get images of the instrument umbilical tethers from time to time to see if they have been lifted by the wind and could cause issues to SEIS through vibrations etc. I guess they could do long term change detection surveys at the same solar time of day, or even occasional dust devil surveys to back up the data from TWINS and the pressure sensor. I guess that there are plenty more things they could do, but much of that likely depends on the amount of bandwidth they are allocated to send all the data back to Earth.

BTW: Anyone seen any wind speed / direction data from TWINS, I checked out the Spanish web site that reports on the REMS for MSL but can't find anything. It would be good to hear that they are working as expected, even if we dont have the data yet.

[serpens]

A little dated with respect to wind measurements but try this.
https://aeolisresearch.com/papers/newmanIC2017.pdf

[PaulH51]

A little dated with respect to wind measurements but try this.

Many thanks, I'd not seen that one