InSight
(Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport, Discovery 12)
(NASA Mars mission to study its interior)
InSight (for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport)
was a NASA Discovery Program Mars lander mission
to investigate Mars' interior.
Among its discoveries, it confirmed that Mars' core is liquid.
It was launched in May 2018 and beginning that November,
carried out its two-year primary mission.
Mission extensions were approved through 2025, but contact was lost
in December 2022, likely because of dust collecting on its
solar panels: gradual declines in its power suggest this.
Since early 2023 the mission is officially retired, though NASA
continues to check for any new signal from the probe.
There remains a possibility that wind might clear the
solar panels and restore power.
Instruments:
- SEIS for "Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure" (seismometer).
- HP3 for "Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package" aka the mole (probe to burrow downward into the surface).
- RISE for "Rotation and Interior Structure Experiment" (radio science measuring rotation and dimensions).
- TWINS for Temperature and Winds for InSight (weather station).
- LaRRI for Laser Retroreflector for InSight.
- IDA for Instrument Deployment Arm (robotic arm).
- IDC for Instrument Deployment Camera.
- ICC for Instrument Context Camera.
The goal of HP3 was to burrow to a depth of five meters,
but only it reached about a third of a meter depth.
(Mars,probe,spacecraft,NASA,past)
Further reading:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/InSight
https://d2pn8kiwq2w21t.cloudfront.net/documents/InSightLitho2015.pdf
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/press_kits/insight/launch/mission/spacecraft/
https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/news-and-events/news/
https://pds-geosciences.wustl.edu/missions/insight/index.htm
https://spaceflight101.com/insight/insight-spacecraft/
https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2012LPI....43.2838B/abstract
https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2013LPI....44.1915B/abstract
https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2013ESASP.718E..14F/abstract
https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2019LPI....50.3109B/abstract
Index