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

[PaulH51]

Recent data is from the mission blog, the historic data is from the mission managers reports in the Analyst's Notebook

[Explorer1]

Impacts Detected!, complete with HiRISE confirmation of the craters!

Also:

Predicting precisely when is difficult, but based on the latest power readings, engineers now believe the lander could shut down between October of this year and January 2023.

[PaulH51]

The InSight mission team have been regularly reporting the Tau and Whr/Sol values in the mission blog page on their web site.

Blog page: LINK

They updated the Blog home page on September 28th, with a new blog, but it contained a verbatim copy of the blog from September 17th.

If anyone here has connections with a mission team member at JPL, can they kindly drop them a line and request they post the correct blog?

TIA

[PaulH51]

News Release (Oct. 7, 2022):-
NASA’s InSight Waits Out Dust Storm LINK
Extract:

The mission carefully monitors the lander’s power level, which has been steadily declining as dust accumulates on its solar arrays. By Monday, Oct. 3, the storm had grown large enough and was lofting so much dust that the thickness of the dusty haze in the Martian atmosphere had increased by nearly 40% around InSight. With less sunlight reaching the lander’s panels, its energy fell from 425 watt-hours per Martian day, or sol, to just 275 watt-hours per sol.

InSight’s seismometer has been operating for about 24 hours every other Martian day. But the drop in solar power does not leave enough energy to completely charge the batteries every sol. At the current rate of discharge, the lander would be able to operate only for several weeks. So to conserve energy, the mission will turn off InSight’s seismometer for the next two weeks.

“We were at about the bottom rung of our ladder when it comes to power. Now we’re on the ground floor,” said InSight’s project manager, Chuck Scott of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “If we can ride this out, we can keep operating into winter – but I’d worry about the next storm that comes along.”

[PaulH51]

NASA InSight’s Power Level as of Oct. 8, 2022 link

On October 8, 2022, InSight was generating an average of 300 watt-hours of energy per Martian day, or sol – an increase after a sharp decline last week from 430 watt-hours per sol to a low of 275 watt-hours per sol. The decline was caused by a regional dust storm which, though thousands of miles from InSight’s location, is lofting dust into the atmosphere around it. The storm has started to wane, but dust particles will continue falling out of the atmosphere for weeks. InSight has minimized lander operations in order to keep its batteries from losing their charge while the solar arrays are getting less sunlight.

[stevesliva]

Any hope that exceptional surface winds are more likely in these conditions? To be honest, seems like clear skies would be better, but here's hoping. We need some unprecedented weather of the beneficial kind.

[PaulH51]

We can see the effects of the elevated atmospheric dust levels in these unprocessed IDC images, that were acquired just three sols apart.

The shadows are softened and the colours are taking on a redder hue

[Tom Tamlyn]

NASA will host a virtual media briefing at 2 p.m. EDT on Thursday, Oct. 27, to share new scientific findings based on observations from the agency’s InSight Mars lander and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).

Science team members from both missions will explain how data and images from each spacecraft – one on the Red Planet’s surface and one orbiting above – contributed to the discovery. They will share how the two missions worked together to confirm their observations. There will also be an update on InSight’s solar energy status.

https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-to-...rbiter-findings

[stevesliva]

Cool! Impact detected mentioned Sept 19 -- will be good to hear more.

[Quetzalcoatl]

Bonsoir,

The announcement will probably be about something other than an impact. A magmatic activity inside the planet would be even more exciting ...

https://www.space.com/mars-maybe-volcanical...aign=socialflow

[Tom Tamlyn]

Appears to be an impact.

[Explorer1]

4 to 8 weeks left, in terms of power usage, by the PI's estimate.
That's a big crater, wow (150 m)!

Ice boulders excavated!

[Tom Tamlyn]

Less than 300 watts per day, expect to lose contact in 4-8 weeks.

[Tom Tamlyn]

Elegiac comments from Lori Glaze.

[Tom Tamlyn]

Nature's Alexandra Witze has put up a good article: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-03447-4

NASA spacecraft records epic ‘marsquakes’ as it prepares to die
InSight lander reports largest-ever meteorite strikes on Mars, and scientists wish it a fond farewell.

Apparently there was an earlier significant impact in September 2021. The press conference and related release discussed only the larger impact on December 24, 2021.

Press release here: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/nasa-s-ins...-impact-on-mars