InSight mission Options

[rlorenz]

Two, can someone offer a sense of how sensitive will the seismometer be? How small a Marsquake could it measure (could that measurement be expressed in the Richer scale?)?

There is a graph and equation of ground motion vs distance for events of different magnitude in my paper above.... (it took me a long time to find that information succinctly expressed..) So given the sensitivity in nm or nm/s or nm/s2 (depending on whether it it displacement or velocity or acceleration that the instrument measures) you can figure out how large an event is detectable at a given distance. Of course with Viking it wasnt instrument sensitivity that was the limiting factor most of the time, but the wind noise background. That was actually pretty low at night, though.

There was one possible Magnitude 3.5 event detected in the Viking data (if that's what it was, it was a couple of hundred km away), although there were not contemporaneous meteorological measurements so a wind gust or dust devil or similar event cannot be excluded. (and of course since the VL-1 seismometer didnt uncage, the event couldnt be confirmed by an independent detection which presumably would not have a wind gust at just the same time - in fact the lack of 2 or more stations was considered the major deficiency of the Viking investigation)

[Yooper]

Thanks! BTW, in a odd twist of timing, I just finished "Titan Unveiled" this morning! A very enjoyable read, and very cool timing with your reply!

[Explorer1]

Apparently the general region for landing has been narrowed down, Elysium Planitia, though the 16 candidate sites need to be narrowed down
according to the PI.

http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n1303/30insight

Hopefully whichever has a volcano on the horizon is the one, for those of us who like topography

Edit: should've searched the previous pages. I thought the article was more than just a rehash, sorry for the bump.

[Explorer1]

From 16 down to 4. More detail on the exact requirements.

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-269

[Phil Stooke]

Unfortunately they don't mention which four ellipses have been chosen. For more information you might like to look at this presentation (penultimate slide) from the recent MEPAG virtual meeting:

http://mepag.jpl.nasa.gov/meeting/jul-13/f...732%20MEPAG.pdf

(rest of the meeting is here):

http://mepag.jpl.nasa.gov/meeting/jul-13/index.html


Phil

[MahFL]

Why does the JPL article use "yards" ?

[Phil Stooke]

Because they are written for Americans. The original text probably said 'meters' and it was translated into the nearest non-metric equivalent. Usually they add a metric equivalent as well, as they did for ellipse sizes.

Phil

[SFJCody]

I expect competition between UMSF regulars to see who can produce the best colourization of the imagery! :-)

[Explorer1]

Launch vehicle + site chosen: An Atlas 5 from Vandenburg! Apparently going to be the first California launch to Mars...

http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n1312/19insight

[Paolo]

a Vandenberg launch was also initially planned for the Mars Surveyor Orbiter 2001 (later renamed Mars Odyssey). it had something to do with the required high inclination of the parking orbit. IIRC Mars Odyssey passed over the UK after launch and the third stage fired over Italy (45 North).
Insight is launching 15 years after that, and the relative positions of Earth and Mars repeat every 15-17 years (for example "great oppositions" in 1971, 1988, 2003 and 2018), so I think that the reason for the Vandenberg launch is the same.

[Greenish]

I know there are others who know the orbital mechanics far better, and I'm sure this is documented elsewhere on the web, but I was curious. So I used the tools from here to create some porkchop plots centered on the nominal departure/arrival dates for InSight. Sure enough, there is a high declination (DLA of ~45 deg) for the departure.

[Paolo]

the French space agency CNES has just published this cool video (mostly in French) on their seismometer for InSight
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3IOKszmnyo

[machi]

It looks that InSight is now planned with color camera on the arm!
Source (page 9): The 2016 InSight Mission & L/S Process

[mcaplinger]

It looks that InSight is now planned with color camera on the arm!

"If this program is successful and on time" is well short of "planned".

[machi]

Yes, that's more accurate but isn't "If this program is successful and on time" true for every planned mission after all?

EDIT: BTW, Thanks for correction. I wrote this news in hurry, because I was too excited about this.
I hope that they will be successful with this "plan".