[X] My Assistant

[scalbers]

Is 'g' for gravity - if so how does that enter into the force of the wind?

[rlorenz]

The first plumb bob on another planet if I'm not mistaken.

If you really mean planet, I guess you could argue the Telltale wind indicator on Phoenix counts.

But much closer to the spirit of plumb bob, if you allow 'planetary body', are the photometric calibration targets that dangled in front of the cameras on Luna 9 / 13. They're the little shield-like objects (arrowed) hanging from the tip of the antennas in my photo at the Lavotchkin Association from a few years ago.

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[Phil Stooke]

And here is one of them on the Moon:



(Luna 13 did not have them)

Phil

[mcaplinger]

Is 'g' for gravity - if so how does that enter into the force of the wind?

I don't think it does. I think the appropriate equation is 0.5 * density * area * windspeed^2 https://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/wind-load-d_1775.html

[serpens]

Given the nature and shape of the tether the drag coefficient would influence the wind load. When the tether is laid out static friction would oppose movement so gravity does have an effect, particularly given the weight of the pronged metal plate attached to the lower part of the cable.

[Zeehond]

We haven't seen new raw images for a few days. I wonder, does the government shutdown have an effect on the release of images? Or on the daily operations of the lander? Some general information about the effects of the shutdown on NASA can be read here: Planetary Society A quote from the article:

NASA will continue to communicate with and safely operate its uncrewed spacecraft. Science planning and operations may be impacted without the participation of federal scientists, and it is unclear how long regular operations could continue during an extended shutdown.

InSight celebrated its first Christmas on Mars, so I assume not much was scheduled to happen during this week even without the shutdown.

[Phil Stooke]

Probably just collecting meteorological data during the break, though something like a sequence of change detection images might be possible as well.

Phil

[MahFL]

Four pics came down from Sol30.

https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/multimedia/ra...mission=insight

[PaulH51]

Probably just collecting meteorological data during the break...

Has anyone read about any summaries of the meteorological data from TWINS and the JPL pressure sensor being released to the public? I visited the Spanish site and it mentioned that they had supplied the hardware for TWINS, but there was no data set provided.

[marsophile]

Is 'g' for gravity - if so how does that enter into the force of the wind?

There may be some confusion between air density and air pressure here. The pressure on a unit of surface area depends on the weight of the column of air above it. In order to produce, say, 6 mbar of pressure at the surface of Mars, the column of air would need to have a greater mass, thus a greater density, than that needed to produce 6 mbar of pressure on Earth. Also because of the lower temperature, the air density must be greater to produce the same amount of pressure. Since the wind force depends on the air density, not the air pressure, it should be greater than we might expect based on the pressure.

[Phil Stooke]

"Four pics came down from Sol30."

Yes, and they show the seismometer tilting as it is levelled.

Phil

[PaulH51]

Yes, and they show the seismometer tilting as it is levelled.....

Well spotted Phil:
Tweaked colours and brightness in this simple GIF using a sol 26 and a sol 30 ICC frame.

[PaulM]

I am hopeful that Jean-Yves Le Gall's twitter account will be a source of new Insight pictures over the next few weeks even if none are added to the JPL Raw Images page due to the shutdown. There seems to be no new pictures at the present time:

https://twitter.com/JY_LeGall

[MahFL]

I am hopeful that Jean-Yves Le Gall's twitter account will be a source of new Insight pictures over the next few weeks even if none are added to the JPL Raw Images page due to the shutdown. There seems to be no new pictures at the present time:

New pictures did come down.

[atomoid]

As most of the tether seems to be suspended mid-air between the lander and the pin plate, as (in my lay view) it seems suboptimal as it would seem to preserve that potential energy throughout the rest of the mission as tension in the tether system (i had expectations of it to lay flat with an almost vertical drop from the spooling system), so I'm curious if SEIS is truly at the 'end of its rope' so to speak, or if there is additional length of tether that hasn't been let out and may be let out later on, as i'd think that tension would tend to transmit vibrations more than a slack system would. If its at 'the end of its rope', im assuming the intent was to place it as far away as possible from the lander's vibrations and that is much better news than reducing what in engineering terms may amount to no more than aesthetic concerns as there aren't any signifficant forces acting on a fully dampened system?