1. InSight (Interior Exploration using Seismic
Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport)
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2. InSight is a NASA Discovery Program mission that will place a lander on Mars to study its deep interior.
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3. InSight Mission Key Dates:
Launch Date: May 5, 2018
Landing: November 26, 2018
Surface operations: Planned 728 days / 708 sols
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4. InSight Landing Site:
Elysium Planitia, a flat, smooth plane just north of Mars’ equator—makes for the perfect location from which to study the deep Martian interior.
This site is about 373 miles (600 kilometers) from Curiosity’s landing site at Gale Crater.
The locations of other Mars landers and rovers are labeled in the map above.
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5. Mission overview:
InSight's primary objective will be to uncover how a rocky body forms and evolves to become a planet.
The mission's secondary objective is to conduct an in-depth study of tectonic activity and meteorite impacts on Mars.
Mars’ internal structure
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6. Mission Objectives:
The InSight mission will conduct six science investigations on and below the surface of Mars to uncover the evolutionary history that shaped all of the rocky planets in the inner solar system. It will:
Determine the size, composition, physical state (liquid/solid) of the Martian core
Determine the thickness and structure of the Martian crust
Determine the composition and structure of the Martian mantle
Determine the thermal state of Mars' interior
Measure the magnitude, rate and geographical distribution of Mars' internal seismic activity
Measure the rate of meteorite impacts on the surface of Mars
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7. Its "pulse" (seismology) Its "temperature" (heat flow probe)
By using sophisticated instruments, InSight will delve deep beneath the surface of Mars, detecting the fingerprints of the processes of terrestrial planet formation, as well as measuring the planet's "vital signs“:
Its "pulse" (seismology)
Its "temperature" (heat flow probe)
Its "reflexes" (precision tracking).
Mars will get its first “checkup” in more than 4.5 billion years.
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8. The InSight Lander will carry three instruments to the surface of Mars:
1. SEIS: To capture Mars' pulse, or its internal activity.
2. HP3: To take Mars' temperature, a key indicator of planetary evolution.
3. Rise: To track Mars' reflexes, or the way it wobbles when it is pulled by the Sun.
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9. Insight will use two cameras:
InSight will incorporate a camera, similar to the "Navcam" engineering cameras onboard the Mars Exploration Rovers (MER).
A second similar camera will be used, with a wide-angle 120-degree field of view lens like the "Hazcam" cameras on MER.
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10. NASA's InSight lander placed its seismometer on Mars on Dec. 19, 2018
NASA's InSight lander placed its seismometer on Mars on Dec. 19, This was the first time a spacecraft robotically placed a seismometer onto the surface of another planet.
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11. NASA's InSight lander deployed its Wind and Thermal Shield on Feb
NASA's InSight lander deployed its Wind and Thermal Shield on Feb. 2 (Sol 66). The shield covers InSight's seismometer, which was set down onto the Martian surface on Dec. 19.
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12. InSight is the Newest Mars Weather Service
No matter how cold your winter has been, it's probably not as chilly as Mars. Check for yourself: Starting February 19, the public can get a daily weather report from NASA's InSight lander: (mars.nasa.gov/insight/weather/)
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13. Latest Weather at Elysium Planitia
InSight is taking daily weather measurements (temperature, wind, pressure) on the surface of Mars at Elysium Planitia, a flat, smooth plain near Mars’ equator.
Sol 86
Feb. 22
High: 7° F
Low: -140° F
Sol 87
Feb. 23
High: 3° F
Low: -138° F
Sol 88
February 24
High: 0° F
Low: -139° F
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14. Latest Weather at Elysium Planitia:
Explanation
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15. End of Show
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19. InSight is more than a Mars mission - it is a terrestrial planet explorer that will address one of the most fundamental issues of planetary and solar system science - understanding the processes that shaped the rocky planets of the inner solar system (Earth top and Mars bottom) more than four billion years ago.
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20. InSight Mission Key Dates:
Launch Date: May 5, 2018
Landing: November 26, 2018
Surface operations: Planned 728 days / 708 sols
Instrument deployment: about 60 sols (including 20 sols margin)
Data volume over 1 Martian year: More than 29 GB (processed seismic data posted to the Web in 2 weeks; remaining science data less than 3 months, no proprietary period)
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21. Mission overview:
InSight's primary objective will be to uncover how a rocky body forms and evolves to become a planet. Generally, a rocky body begins its formation through a process called accretion. As the body increases in size, its interior heats up and melts. As it subsequently cools and recrystallizes it evolves into what we know today as a terrestrial planet, containing a core, mantle and crust. While all of the terrestrial planets share similar structures and their bulk compositions are roughly the same as the meteoritic material from which they were formed, they are by no means uniform. Each of the terrestrial planets reached their current formation and structure through a process known as differentiation, which is poorly understood. InSight's goal will be to solve the mystery of differentiation in planetary formation - and to bridge the gap of understanding that lies between accretion, and the final formation of a terrestrial planet's core, mantle, and crust.
The mission's secondary objective is to conduct an in-depth study of tectonic activity and meteorite impacts on Mars, both of which could provide valuable knowledge about such processes on Earth.
Mars’ internal structure
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22. Mars has the same basic internal structure as the Earth and other terrestrial (rocky) planets. It is large enough to have pressures equivalent to those throughout the Earth's upper mantle, and it has a core with a similar fraction of its mass. This diagram shows the depths at which high pressures cause certain minerals to transform to higher-density crystal structures. The size of Mars indicates that it must have undergone many of the same separation and crystallization processes that formed the Earth's crust and core during early planetary formation.
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23. The InSight Lander will carry three instruments to the surface of Mars:
1. SEIS: To capture Mars' pulse, or its internal activity, InSight will carry a seismometer called SEIS to the surface of the Red Planet. SEIS will take precise measurements of quakes and other internal activity on Mars to better understand the planet's history and structure.
2. HP3: To take Mars' temperature, a key indicator of planetary evolution, InSight will deploy a heat flow probe on the surface of Mars. The instrument, known as HP3, will hammer five meters into the Martian subsurface, deeper than all previous arms, scoops, drills and probes, to learn how much heat is coming from Mars' interior and reveal the planet's thermal history.
Another instrument
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24. 3. Rise: To track Mars' reflexes, or the way it wobbles when it is pulled by the Sun, an investigation called RISE will precisely measure the Doppler shift and ranging of radio communications sent between the InSight lander and Earth. By tracking wobble, scientists can determine the distribution of the Red Planet's internal structures and better understand how the planet is built.
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25. Cameras:
InSight will incorporate a camera, similar to the "Navcam" engineering cameras onboard the Mars Exploration Rovers (MER), mounted on the arm of the lander that will serve to capture black and white images of the instruments on the lander's deck and a 3-D view of the ground where the seismometer and heat flow probe will be placed. It will then be used to help engineers and scientists guide the deployment of the instruments to the ground. With a 45-degree field of view, the camera will also provide a panoramic view of the terrain surrounding the landing site.
A second similar camera, with a wide-angle 120-degree field of view lens like the "Hazcam" cameras on MER, will be mounted under the edge of the lander's deck and will provide a complementary view of the instrument deployment area.
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26. Graph of the Weather Report at Elysium Planitia
This plot is being updated daily throughout the duration of the InSight mission. The plot shows the latest three sols (Martian days) of weather data at InSight’s landing site near the equator of Mars. All data points are one-hour averages of the calibrated data from the spacecraft.
Air Temperature Plot (top):
Air temperature is shown in degrees Celsius, as measured by the Temperature and Wind for InSight (TWINS) instrument.
To Wind Speed
To Pressure
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27. Graph of the Weather Report at Elysium Planitia
Pressure Plot (middle):
Atmospheric pressure is shown in Pascals, as measured by an air pressure sensor, which is part of the Auxiliary Payload Sensor Subsystem (APSS). Typical sea-level pressure on Earth is around 101,325 Pascals.
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To Wind Speed
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28. Graph of the Weather Report at Elysium Planitia
Wind Speed Plot (bottom):
Wind speed is shown in meters per second, as measured by the pair of TWINS booms. The barbs extending from each wind speed data point indicate the compass direction of the wind (e.g., a wind blowing from the north will have a barb straight up above the point; a wind blowing from the west will have a barb off to the left). Full and half flags extending from the barbs indicate the wind speed, with each half flag representing approximately 2.5 meters per second. A circle in place of a barb indicates a wind speed less than 2.5 meters per second.
Back to Air Temp
Back to Pressure
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