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

[tanjent]

I hope the mission managers can emulate the experience of Hayabusa (I). When things don't go precisely according to plan, then robotic exploration must rely on the human capacity to think creatively and innovate. They have a superbly sensitive instrument placed on the surface of a planet millions of miles distant, and that set of advantages is not going to not going to come along again any time soon. It will be interesting to see if they can find a way to work around the obstacle, buth literally and figuratively.

[nprev]

Hmm. If the acoustic response is changing between strokes without changing hammering mode/frequency, that may imply that this is indeed an isolated--and relatively small?--rock rather than a layer since the changes would presumably be caused by small movements of the rock itself.

That's obviously an optimistic interpretation of a description of data we are not privy to, but I at least see some hope here.

[polaris]

At the InSight site on Mars, Sol 122 of its mission at 07:10 AM : "Impression Soleil Levant"...
Enjoy

Bravo, Olivier !
Je suis impressionné par l"impressionniste spatial".

[vikingmars]

Bravo, Olivier ! Je suis impressionné par l"impressionniste spatial".

Thanks so much Polaris for your kind words

[PaulH51]

DLR HP3 Logbook entry dated 11 April 2019: link

[stevesliva]

Interesting that they think the possibility that it's a buried obstruction is rather low, and that they're leaning towards the idea that it don't have the leverage that friction with the sides of the borehole would allow.

Makes me more optimistic about things than I have been before. Thanks again for keeping watch on that page.

[Phil Stooke]

We are getting a lot of really nice low sun angle images at the moment. They will make a lovely panorama eventually.

Phil

[PaulH51]

We are getting a lot of really nice low sun angle images at the moment. They will make a lovely panorama eventually.

Here is one of the processed frames I think Phil is referring to to

I called this one “Pulvis et Umbra Sumus" from Horace (We are dust and shadows)

[atomoid]

That surely will be eye candy for us all. I'm not sure what the ongoing plans are for the ICC, but it seems an interesting application which may be of minimal impact to ongoing operations could be to program ICC to snap a picture at the same time(s) every sol, eventually due to the ICC unique stable viewpoint and timing for a full Mars year would result in a very stable 25 second time lapse highlighting primarily the tau and seasonal changes framed with a sidebar showing weather data at the time of each image, for what that is worth. So far the timing of the ICC has seemed sporadic from day to day based on need, so by chance finding suitable frames to put together something comparable seems hit or miss for now, but going forward it would be enriching if something like that can happen.

[PaulH51]

...to program ICC to snap a picture at the same time(s) every sol...

That's a great idea, I hope they do that, but I also hope it would not be too difficult to ensure they acquire the images at the same local solar time(s) each sol and possibly at the same manual exposure setting(s) so we can see the subtle effects of the lightening and darkening with the changing tau rather than auto exposure settings that tends to even things out. I realise we will eventually get the exposure data but the PDS is always a long way behind citizen processing

Talking of PDS, anyone heard any whispers on when we will see the first PDS data entries for this mission? After all we're approaching 5 months since landing (144 earth days)

[Phil Stooke]

" Coming Soon

May 24, 2019 - InSight Release 1a
Jun. 1, 2019 - MRO Release 49
Jun. 15, 2019 - LRO Release 38
June 26, 2019 - InSight Release 1b
Jul. 1, 2019 - Odyssey Release 68
Aug. 1, 2019 - MSL Release 21"

This is from the PDS Geosciences node, but imaging is probably the same schedule.

Phil

[serpens]

Interesting that they think the possibility that it's a buried obstruction is rather low, and that they're leaning towards the idea that it don't have the leverage that friction with the sides of the borehole would allow.

Actually my take on the update was that they just don't know.

[PaulH51]

Coming Soon

Thanks Phil

[PaulH51]

Watch Twitter etc for an InSight mission Press Release expected later today re InSight's seismometer source

[climber]

Got news but it’s in French...so be patients and don’t shiver