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

[Hungry4info]

New images are up.

Another from the workstation camera, the cover is still on as of Sol 1.
https://mars.nasa.gov/insight-raw-images/su...0000_0589M_.PNG

There's a couple new images from the robotic arm camera, one shows some movement of .. I think the grappling device at the end of the arm?
https://mars.nasa.gov/insight-raw-images/su...0000_0463M_.PNG

[jccwrt]

Some of the dust on the camera lens has moved around. Hard to say if this is from wind or because movement from the grapple gently shook some of it off.

[fredk]

Doing a further max with the new ICC frame doesn't improve my sol 0 2-frame image much, since not much dust has moved and the lighting is different in the sol 1 image which causes artifacts especially near the centre of the frame, but here it is anyway:

[Phil Stooke]

Not quite the same (I wrote this replying to fredk), look how the grapple moves between the two Sol 1 IDC images. And they are at different times of day so shadows move, including in the ICC images between sols 0 and 1.

Phil

[PDP8E]

Here is a gif of Insight's deck from the IDC cam...
(the camera is on the 'forearm' section of the folded arm assembly)

[nprev]

The new dance craze for all the cool kids this Northern Hemisphere winter will be the Grapple Snapp! Thanks, PDP.

A word on expectation management: The InSight team took great pains, I'd say, to emphasize that this mission will be considerably slower-paced than what we've become accustomed to over the years for Mars. Seems that I heard that surface instrument deployment probably won't begin till well after the holidays, though since it seems that they've begun testing arm mechanical functions we should see some of that at least in the near future.

Also, they'll of course have to survey the putative instrument placement sites before making a commitment; that will doubtless take some time.

All good. I guess geophysics missions require something a tiny bit closer to geological timescales to do right.

[Explorer1]

Yes, there's no wheels on this one. The nearest comparison is with Phoenix, and the team then was working with a much stricter deadline (Martian polar winter!) than InSight has. I'd be happy with a 360 panorama by Christmas!

[Phil Stooke]

Just playing here, with the 3 IDC images making 2 pairs. These are difference images showing subtle changes - not so subtle on the deck where shadows and actual movement, but ignore that. The sky shows subtle changes between the two pairs, possibly related to clouds - very diffuse clouds - passing overhead. They have a radiometer to look for differences in illumination because it affects the heat flow, and those differences would include time of day, tau and cloud shadows.

Phil

[antipode]

Thanks Phil. I hope we see some Philo-vision [TM] as soon as we get a significant stretch of the horizon in view!
I'm actually really looking forward to the meteorology package and magnetometer data.
Any idea when and where we might see that appear?

Another Phil

[propguy]

Any idea when and where we might see that appear?

Without providing information that is not to be made public, from the timeline I have seen for the near term, it looks like images with different viewpoints and other hoped for things will occur this week. Sort of like the first ten plays of a football game, the sol days 0-5 are pre-scripted and will occur roughly on the planned timeline (unless of course issues arise). Sol 1 had a planned grapple lock down release (as you see in the photos). Array power is above predicts (as things usually are since the predicts are a worst case analysis) which is a great result.

[fredk]

These are difference images showing subtle changes - not so subtle on the deck where shadows and actual movement, but ignore that. The sky shows subtle changes between the two pairs, possibly related to clouds - very diffuse clouds - passing overhead.

Some of the differences may be due to the onboard jpeg compression.

Since the insight "raw" site is providing png's, that hopefully means that they are lossless relative to the received images - it wouldn't make sense to re-jpeg the received images and then convert those to pngs.

I haven't heard anything about the original true raw images (ie, before onboard jpeg compression) eventually being sent home.

[SpaceListener]

This is what HiRISE looks like in the approximate landing area (image number in file name if you save it). Lots of smooth patches between slightly rougher patches. Really not too many serious hazards. I'm looking! But we don't have much to go on yet.

Phil


[attachment=43778:ESP_0379...ea_small.jpg]

This land does not look to be a windy place since it has no lines of a bump of sand.

[Phil Stooke]

We haven't seen much of it yet! Lots more to see when the arm is raised.

Phil

[Phil Stooke]

One result from the seismometer is expected to be the detection of impacts on Mars. And look at this, one occurred about 5 or 6 km from the landing site only 3 years ago.

Phil

Before impact:


After impact:


close-up:

[hendric]

Looks like it broke up in the air before impacting. Probably not great for probing the core right?