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

[Marcin600]

I know that the situation is very serious, but for me there is something a little funny in the fact that a lot of people in the world are constantly staring at this one little device with a beating heart ... will it move or not? and which way?

I apologize for this bit of profanation

[Quetzalcoatl]

The mole keeps making me thinking of certain movie endings, where we'll wake up one morning and see gratefully that it is just gone (underground).

A French proverb : L'espoir fait vivre (Hope makes your life)

In Inglish we say "Hope gives life" ?...

[Quetzalcoatl]

Hello,

In addition to post 867, I am offering you a translation of the article published on the CNES website (Centre Nationnal d'Etudes Spatiales) relating to the year of operation of the Insight seismometer on March.

INSIGHT/SEIS: THE VEIL RISES ON THE INTERNAL STRUCTURE OF MARS

More than 100 researchers analyzed the first dataset of the Insight mission’s SEIS seismeter. Thanks to 3 earthquakes, among the 171 events detected between January and September 2019, they establish that the upper crust of Mars is between 8 and 11 km thick and that its numerous fractures are covered with films of liquid water. These results are published in Nature Geosciences on February 24, 2020.

Original link :
https://insight.cnes.fr/fr/insightseis-le-v...interne-de-mars

3 SEISMIC NOISE PERIODS :

On 18 December 2018, the Insight lander arm deposited the SEIS seismeter coordinated by the CNES on Mars. Analysis of the 1st dataset of its VBB sensors reveals the existence of 3 typical periods of seismic noise related to atmospheric activity thanks to the recordings of the meteorological station attached to the lander.

From sunrise to sunset : the air heated by the Sun beats the ground. SEIS records many noises related to atmospheric turbulence.

From sunset to midnight : Mars is extremely quiet with seismic noise about 500 times lower than seismic noise on Earth. This noise is the lowest ever measured by a seismic station!

From midnight to sunrise: a light breeze from the southwest touches the surface and generates seismic noise by deforming the ground under air pressure.

The extreme sensitivity of SEIS makes it possible to detect the smallest vibrations of the ground such as those related to the passage of dust devils (NDLR: dust tornadoes). We expected it, this first data set confirms it: SEIS will teach us a lot of new things about the Martian atmosphere» says Philippe Lognonné, professor at the University of Paris, geophysicist of the IPGP, Scientific Director of SEIS and 1st author of the article published in Nature Geosciences.

TOP CRUST THICKNESS : ABOUT 10 KM

From January to September 2019, the researchers identified 171 seismic events, 20 of which would correspond to earthquakes of magnitude 3 to 4. Three earthquakes were particularly well detected by the French SEIS sensors:

the earthquake of 7 April 2019 (Sol 128 because the 128th Martian day of the Insight mission) estimated at a magnitude of about 2.1
the earthquake of 23 May 2019 (Sol 173) estimated at a magnitude of approximately 3.6
the earthquake of 26 July 2019 (Sol 235) estimated at a magnitude of approximately 3.6.

Thanks to the different arrival times of the P and S waves, the researchers determined the existence of a higher crust of thickness between 8 and 11 km. This top crust of about 10 km is more friable and less consolidated than the bottom crust on which it rests. It has been altered by surface processes and probably also by meteoritic impacts. Below, is a crust with more original and less fractured rocks, with a speed 50% faster, a jump from 2 km/s to 3 km/s. This first series of recordings did not allow us to locate the zone of discontinuity between the crust and the mantle (NDLR: the thickness of the crust as a whole). This would require a stronger earthquake or SEIS recording of surface waves, Philippe Lognonné explains.

https://insight.cnes.fr/sites/default/files...g?itok=ohCS4maP

A FRACTURED UPPER CRUST

Another conclusion of the fine analysis of the recordings of these 3 earthquakes: the upper crust of Mars is very fractured and its faults are covered with films of liquid water. «The velocity of wave propagation in the upper crust of Mars is in values intermediate to the one on the Moon and Earth. This assumes a relatively fractured upper crust. In terms of attenuation of seismic waves, we find a value 3 times greater than on the Moon, comparable to those of crystalline massifs such as the Armoricain massif in France (Bretagne) which suggests the presence of moisture. But don’t imagine large amounts of water, it only takes a few films of liquid water molecules to explain the attenuation of the seismic waves we observe,” insists Philippe Lognonné.

On the CNES side, we are very proud to have succeeded in this instrument which has been complex to develop. A real watch jewel! Its implementation was based on close cooperation between the IPGP, Sodern, foreign partners and the CNES. Today, SEIS delivers its first seismic measurements and this is only the beginning. We are only beginning to lift the veil on Martian seismicity!» concludes Francis Rocard, Head of Solar System Exploration Programs at the CNES.

THE CNES, MASTER OF CLOCKS

In order to link SEIS records to earthquakes or atmospheric phenomena, it is essential to have a good dating of these events. It is the SISMOC, a centre dedicated to the Insight mission at the CNES in Toulouse, that provides scientists with the consistent dating of seismic and meteorological data from the instrument clocks. Now, these clocks — which are more counters than real clocks giving hours have a drift in different time of up to a few seconds a day! This work was anticipated for SEIS and the APSS weather station because it was known that changes in atmospheric pressure would have an impact on seismic measurements. Every second, SEIS sends a clock to APSS. It is retransmitted to SISMOC several times a day with the APSS clock data, which allows us to compare their counter and recalculate the whole with an accuracy of a few ms» explains Ludovic Rochas, SEIS Operations System Engineer at CNES.

HP3

In the article published in Nature Geosciences, the researchers also present the analysis of seismic recordings during attempts to penetrate the ground by the Insight HP3 probe. To provide consistent dating, MOCIS had to find a trick. During the penetration attempts of HP3, we program SEIS to transmit its dating much more frequently to the lander, every minute. These datations are then correlated with those that HP3 sends to the lander». The researchers were able to calculate that the shocks caused by HP3 averaged 9.4 ms to travel a distance of 1.1 m, confirming that the surface soil on which Insight landed is composed of very brittle materials, unlikely to spread rapidly propagating surface waves.

[PaulH51]

Sol 458 The scoop pushes the side of the mole's end-cap as it sinks a short distance into the ground.
The scoop appears to follow the mole down, did not see any contact with the ribbon in the images we have so far, so a remarkable job by the team in commanding that event. More to come soon.
Attached a still frame as I can't create a GIF at this time, but here's a link to a set of 6 GIFs posted on Imgur and shared via the Reddit sub for InSight by u/grappleone: https://imgur.com/a/hKPFl8y

[Quetzalcoatl]

Thank you Paul,

The big question that can be asked (and I think it has been asked before) is what will happen when the bucket comes at ground level ?..

But we’re not there yet...

[atomoid]

Once that end-cap goes to ground, its probably be too risky to apply pressure with the blade in an edge-on configuration, so the only safe way forward seems to be to drag in soil from the surrounding surface and completely fill the hole, compacting and applying pressure with the scoop in its flat configuration to produce as much friction as possible, then proceed slowly to see if it remains effective or if it collapses more volume and needs more soil repack at intervals. i am absent any other ideas, but they probably have a tiered set of options in the queue for the next few months.

Its so good to see the incredible SEIS results coming back that more than overshadow any angst and drama associated with the HP2 deployment, as problematic as it has turned out, but even so, its incredibly exciting to be able to have a challenge like this, as it presents so many learning opportunities that wculd never have occurred if everything went as expected, even most other types of instrument deployment failures would be more of engineering lessons and couldn't have presented a necessity to solve unknowns about the physics of different martian soils as this particular scenario does, and i have high confidence it will be overcome, eventually...

[Quetzalcoatl]

I love this realism tinged with optimism.
There is no point in whining.
We have to move on.

[rob66]

Looks like it may be rotating back out this time (becoming more horizontal), rather than heading in ?

[Quetzalcoatl]

Let us remain cautious but hope seems to be reborn...

https://twitter.com/NASAInSight/status/1238...497770228420608

[Quetzalcoatl]

Looks like it may be rotating back out this time (becoming more horizontal), rather than heading in ?

Bonjour,

"Depth is determined by a tether length measurement device (TLM) that monitors the amount of tether extracted from the support structure and a tiltmeter (STATIL) that measures the angle of the Mole axis to the local gravity vector." (From a paper by Tilman Spohn).

Long time ago, I think I read somewhere that by its design the mole would have the ability after it has been tilted by some obstacle and by regaining conditions favourable to its progression, to right its axis of penetration towards the vertical.

To be checked.

[Explorer1]

The mole is looking rather horizontal in the latest images; I don't have a good feeling about this anymore....

[ddeerrff]

The mole is looking rather horizontal in the latest images; I don't have a good feeling about this anymore....

I was surprised that they didn't put pressure on the probe (with the scoop) from the left side in an attempt to make it a bit more vertical. Perhaps the left side was inaccessible to the scoop.

[Quetzalcoatl]

I was surprised that they didn't put pressure on the probe (with the scoop) from the left side in an attempt to make it a bit more vertical. Perhaps the left side was inaccessible to the scoop.

Me too.
Moreover, it would have been desirable that the pressure not be exerted too vertically. But was it possible?

[James Sorenson]

The mole is looking rather horizontal in the latest images...

It looks that from the IDC camera but not from the ICC camera. It's maybe 35 or 40 degrees from horizontal. The tilt of it really didn't change during the push test.

https://mars.nasa.gov/insight-raw-images/su...0000_0461M_.JPG

I was surprised that they didn't put pressure on the probe (with the scoop) from the left side in an attempt to make it a bit more vertical.

Ever tried to streighten a nail when most of it was buried in some lumber? You end up bending the nail because there won't be much deflection of what is buried but deflection of what is not. That is not to say that will happen here, but if most of the mole is buried (like it is) that would probably require alot of latteral force by the arm to achieve for not much if not zero vertical gain. Might even have some deflection of the arm and put unnecessary stress on the arm actuators or the scoop when trying.

[atomoid]

Sounds like a first step for now, tallying the results to see what to do next.. my worry of trying to 'right' the mole is that the soil is so non-cohesive that the void introduced by that action will be replaced by breaking the already somewhat packed soils around the mole currently thus loosening and making its current hole less stable, resulting in less friction than currently exists (but heck im no planetary regolith scientist im just throwing out worries here), anyways, i'd assume they may move on to riskier scenarios like that if all else fails..