[X] My Assistant

[Phil Stooke]

Just noticed that actually there were two separate contacts on sol 1074 and two more on 1075. All basically in the same place but if you overlay images they are clearly distinct.

Phil

[Fox]

I wonder if InSight could use its own scoop to scrape dust off of the solar panels?

[john_s]

I'm sure that if that was feasible, it would already have been attempted.

In the hindsight department, it might have been nice to have brush attachment on the deck that could be picked up by the grapple on the arm and used to brush off the panels. But there might be good reasons why that wouldn't have been feasible either.

John

[Phil Stooke]

I don't like the idea of using any physical brush or scraper or wiper on the solar arrays because of abrasive dust damaging the surface, possibly reducing power generation or making the surface more likely to hold dust. My best guess is that the tip of the scoop could be lodged just under the edge of an array and raised. When the array slips free it vibrates enough to dislodge dust. However, this is risky to both the arm and the array so I would only expect it to be used as an absolute last resort when power is dropping to mission-ending levels, which Bruce Banerdt suggested at MEPAG could be in about June 2022.

Phil

[MahFL]

...
In the hindsight department, it might have been nice to have brush attachment on the deck that could be picked up by the grapple on the arm and used to brush off the panels. But there might be good reasons why that wouldn't have been feasible either.
John

We had years of brush talks with the MER rovers, basically the timeline of the panels is designed for the timeline of the primary mission.

[atomoid]

No dust devils, no dust brush, no GDRT-type nitrogen bottle, mission was previously extended to end a year form now, since they have the budget one wonders if they will try a hail mary and vibrate the panel deployment motors again, but this time after dropping some dust directly on the solar array, the added volume of material might be enough to nudge the dust from adhering, though im sure they have already considered such an approach by now

[Phil Stooke]

Sol 1088. The scoop is on the surface again in the same spot as before. Come on, InSight - please tweet what you are up to!

Phil

[Phil Stooke]

No news on the reason for the arm on the surface but I have a new hypothesis - leaving it up in the air might be a source of seismic noise as the wind blows around it, shaking the whole lander slightly. Perhaps leaving it in contact with the ground reduces the noise. It's still there now.

Phil

[serpens]

With respect to cleaning of solar panels, the process of dropping a scoop of dirt onto the deck from a height upwind of the panel resulted in a cleaning of some dust through saltation and a boost in power. Talk about thinking outside the box. The results of seismic analysis at shallow depth is interesting, with the extent of sedimentary rock beneath the Hesperian/Amazonian lava deposits, presumably from the Elysium volcanoes, overlaying the thick sedimentary rock which begins at a depth of 170 metres. This extensive sedimentary rock could possibly relate to the presence of a Northern Ocean which would have affected both Gale and Jezero.

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[rlorenz]

We had years of brush talks with the MER rovers, basically the timeline of the panels is designed for the timeline of the primary mission.

Apollo experience on attempting to brush off dust from the LRV radiators shows that even with human vision and dexterity, it isnt easy to
get dust off anyway....
Ironically, the timeline of the MER primary mission was determined by the expectation of dust on the panels.... :-)
As my paper in ASR on distance requirements on rover missions notes

'The preliminary design of the rover option by JPL engineer
Mark Adler carried the Athena payload package
(assembled by Steve Squyres, originally selected for a small
rover (‘Marie Curie’) on the 2001 lander.) As Squyres
(2005) records ‘‘Applying what he thought was prudent
margin, Mark had been willing to sign up to only 30 sols
of operations at first.” (The Sojourner solar array experience
implied that the daily energy available would degrade
by 10% over this period).
Conway (2015, pp. 221–222) observes ‘‘at the
”shootout‘‘ meeting in the Pasadena Hilton in July 2000,
Mars program chief scientist Jim Garvin told Squyres that
the 30-sol mission life was putting them at a competitive
disadvantage. They had to at least do better than the
Sojourner rover’s 86 day life. Pete Theisinger and Rob
Manning then had a conversation in the hallway about
what they could sign up to. The short study they’d had performed
showed a positive power margin at sol 91, so they
decided they could accept a 90-day mission.” Squyres
(2005) observes: ‘‘So ninety sols was it. It became one of
our Level One Requirements”. In this instance, then (as
in many others), the capability became the requirement.'

[djellison]

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-insight...mars-dust-storm

NASA’s InSight Enters Safe Mode During Regional Mars Dust Storm

The lander has taken measures to conserve energy; engineers aim to return to normal operations next week.

NASA’s InSight lander is stable and sending health data from Mars to Earth after going into safe mode Friday, Jan. 7, following a large, regional dust storm that reduced the sunlight reaching its solar panels. In safe mode, a spacecraft suspends all but its essential functions.

The mission’s team reestablished contact with InSight Jan. 10, finding that its power was holding steady and, while low, was unlikely to be draining the lander’s batteries. Drained batteries are believed to have caused the end of NASA’s Opportunity rover during an epic series of dust storms that blanketed the Red Planet in 2018.

Even before this recent dust storm, dust had been accumulating on InSight’s solar panels, reducing the lander’s power supply. Using a scoop on the lander’s robotic arm, InSight’s team came up with an innovative way to reduce the dust on one panel, and gained several boosts of energy during 2021, but these activities become increasingly difficult as available energy decreases.

Dust storms can affect solar panels in two ways: Dust reduces sunlight filtering through the atmosphere, and it can also accumulate on the panels. Whether this storm will leave an additional layer of dust on the solar panels remains to be determined.

The current dust storm was first detected by the Mars Color Imager (MARCI) camera aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which creates daily color maps of the entire planet. Those maps allow scientists to monitor dust storms and can serve as an early warning system for spacecraft on the Martian surface. InSight’s team received data indicating the regional storm is waning.

The whirlwinds and gusts of dust storms have helped to clear solar panels over time, as with the Spirit and Opportunity Mars rover missions. While InSight’s weather sensors have detected many passing whirlwinds, none have cleared any dust.

InSight’s engineers are hopeful they will be able to command the lander to exit safe mode next week. This will allow more flexibility in operating the lander, as communication, which requires a relatively large amount of energy, is limited in safe mode to conserve battery charge.

InSight landed on Mars on Nov. 26, 2018, to study the inner structure of the planet, including its crust, mantle and core. The spacecraft achieved its science objectives before its prime mission ended a year ago. NASA then extended the mission for up to two years, to December 2022, based on the recommendation of an independent review panel composed of experts with backgrounds in science, operations and mission management.

[PhilHorzempa]

In May 2020, I wrote this essay in connection with Insight >

https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3949/1

As you will see, I make the case that the robot arm on Insight should be used to dig a deep trench.
Of course, this will depend on the lander's power supply.

Here is a photo of a trench dug by Viking 1 (courtesy of Phil Stooke) >



It shows that the Viking arm was capable of digging a significant trench, contrary to what I wrote in my essay!

The title of the paper that reviews the history of the arm carried by Insight is "Insight Instrument Deployment Arm" by Richard Fleischner. I neglected to include that title in my essay.

This recent paper is a thorough recap of what the authors refer to as the "Mole Saga" >

https://arxiv.org/pdf/2112.04438.pdf

They mention that a large stone blocking the Mole was unlikely. However, the presence of the arm will allow them a direct means of determining if that is true. In fact, I think that this Deep Trench should be dug immediately next to the Mole. That would allow a direct view of the obstacles, be they rocks or duricrust or sand or a solidified layer of lava.
In the Synopsis, the authors point out that the Mole's progress was slowed by an order of magnitude after burrowing down 1 foot. This baffled them, as they state: "We can only speculate about the nature of this layer." That is the issue in a nutshell.
Future missions to Mars, both manned and unmanned, will need to dig or drill into the subsurface. They would benefit immensely from a deep trench experiment conducted by Insight.

Another Phil

[PaulH51]

snip NASA's InSight Enters Safe Mode During Regional Mars Dust Storm link

Updated January 19, 2022, 9:00 a.m. PST (12:00 p.m. EST):

NASA’s InSight has exited safe mode and resumed normal operations, although its science instruments remain off. Skies appear to be clearing of dust above the spacecraft. Over the next two weeks, the mission team will assess the effects of dust accumulation on the lander’s power.

[PaulH51]

Hello There

ICC Sol 1129 (Jan 29, 2022)

This is the 1st image from the lander in over three weeks as the rover was in safe mode / conserving energy.

So good to see it back and the skies looking fairly clear of the reported dust storms

[PaulH51]

A selection of IDC images from sol 1136 shows the arm moving over the lander's deck. Maybe another saltation exercise?