InSight mission to study deep beneath the Martian surface, lands 26 Nov 2018

[editor]

Looking forward to this one!

It's due to touch-down in Mars' Elysium Planitia region, an area devoid of rocks, and flat enough to guarantee InSight's solar panels get uninterrupted sun.

That’s just 373 miles from Gale Crater, where Curiosity has spent the last six years (or three Martian years) on a super-slow 10 -mile tour.

However, InSight is much more like the Phoenix Mars lander, which landed within Mars' northern arctic circle in 2008 to probe soil and ice under the surface.

InSight also won't move much because it's not there to study the Martian ground, but what's beneath it.

"It really doesn't matter where we land because we are interested in the deep structure of the planet," said Banerdt, who added that NASA therefore chose the safest and easiest place to land.

So, what's a Marsquake?
Shorthand for the Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport, InSight will be the first NASA mission since the Apollo moon landings to place a seismometer on an alien surface.

That instrument, called the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS), is there to measure the intensity of waves traveling through the rock, which have been detected from Earth before.

Although InSight is landing away from Mars' Tharsis Plateau – home to some of the biggest volcanoes in the solar system –it has an instrument that can help scientists figure out how heat flows from the Red Planet's interior.


HP3 is a self-hammering heat flow probe that will be thrust 16ft / 5m into the planet's surface to take its temperature. Also onboard is a radio system called the Rotation and Interior Structure Experiment (RISE) that scientists will use to measure the makeup of the planet's core.

"Two antennas on the spacecraft will communicate with the Deep Space Network on Earth, and by using the frequency shift we can track the location of the spacecraft within an accuracy of just a handful of inches," says Banerdt.

The first-ever mission to study what's under the Martian surface begins May 5 | TechRadar

 

[Limejuice]

Rocket's away.

 

[editor]

So far so good...

NASA's InSight Mars lander performed its first engine burn on Tuesday (May 22), refining its course toward the Red Planet.

The 40-second burn, which involved four of InSight's eight thrusters, was designed to change the lander's velocity by about 8.5 mph (13.7 km/h). Mission team members will perform up to five additional burns before InSight's Nov. 26 touchdown, but none will be more substantial than Tuesday's, NASA officials said.

InSight didn't have Mars squarely in its sights when it lifted off atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket on May 5. That's perfectly normal; Mars spacecraft are scrubbed meticulously before liftoff to minimize the chances that they'll contaminate the Red Planet with Earth microbes, but the rockets they ride on remain "dirty."

NASA's InSight Mars Lander Fires Up Its Engines in Space for 1st Time

 

[editor]

A month to go!

NASA's InSight lander is scheduled to touch down just north of the Martian equator on the afternoon of Nov. 26, bringing a nearly seven-month space trek to an end. InSight launched, along with the two tiny Mars Cube One (MarCO) cubesats, atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base on May 5.

The solar-powered spacecraft will barrel into the Martian atmosphere at 14,100 mph (22,700 km/h), then deploy a big parachute to slow its descent. As the lander nears the surface, it will pop free of its back shell and parachute, touching down softly with the aid of 12 descent engines about 6 minutes after getting its first taste of Mars' air.

That touchdown will come on a high-elevation equatorial plain called Elysium Planitia, a mere 370 miles (600 kilometers) from Gale Crater, where NASA's car-size Curiosity rover landed in August 2012.

Elysium Planitia is "as flat and boring a spot as any on Mars," NASA officials wrote in a statement Wednesday (Oct. 24). And that's why the InSight team chose to land there — for safety's sake.

At Elysium, "there's less to crash into, fewer rocks to land on and lots of sunlight to power the spacecraft," NASA officials added. "The fact that InSight doesn't use much power and should have plenty of sunlight at Mar

1 Month to Mars! NASA's InSight Lander Nearing Red Planet Touchdown

 

[Limejuice]

I'll be getting beer and snacks in for this landing.

Parachute and retro rockets!

 

[editor]

Getting closer! Boy, is it tricky to land.

 

[2hats]

The main entry sequence starts around 1940UTC with landing scheduled to be about 1954UTC on Monday 26 November (Earth receive time given; one way light time is around 8min 9sec). An X-band beacon, indicating successful landing on the surface, should be heard around 2001UTC. A landing image might be available 10-20 minutes after landing (if various conditions are met, otherwise such an image may be available several hours later).

Note timings are based on mission planning over the summer and will vary (to some degree) on the day due to prevailing martian atmospheric conditions.

 

[editor]

Here's where to watch the landing online

Tune in again Sunday (Nov. 25), as NASA holds a final news conference before the landing, with the conference set to begin at 1 p.m. EST (1800 GMT). The Mars InSight team will answer questions from social media live beginning at 4 p.m. EST (2100 GMT).

Finally, the big day itself: NASA's live coverage of the landing will begin at 2 p.m. EST (1900 GMT) and run until 3:30 p.m. EST (2030 GMT).

But because of the challenges of interplanetary communication, NASA staff won't know right away whether the landing attempt was successful. The agency is not setting a time for the post-landing news conference but has announced that event will take place no earlier than 5 p.m. EST (2300 GMT). The suspense could easily continue later into the evening.

NASA Is Landing on Mars Soon! Here's How to Watch the InSight Excitement.

 

[editor]

Come on InSight! I'm rooting for you!

All systems are go for landing on Mars on Nov. 26, NASA personnel affiliated with the InSight mission confirmed during a pair of news conferences held today (Nov. 21).

As of that news conference, the spacecraft had traveled about 295 million miles (475 million kilometers) of the 301 million miles (484 million km) that will make up its total journey. But one of the most serious hurdles remains, the entry, descent and landing process, which will begin at about 3 p.m. EST (2000 GMT) on Monday (Nov. 26).

Part of that work will include determining whether the spacecraft needs one more tiny nudge to get it in place for the landing. Since it launched, InSight has made four tiny tweaks to its path to ensure it arrives on target. It was able to skip one additional maneuver because the others have gone so smoothly, and the team thinks the probe may be able to skip the final adjustment, scheduled for Nov. 25.

Lining up the spacecraft properly will boost the odds that everything will go smoothly during entry, descent and landing. Although that process lasts for less than 7 minutes, a lot could go wrong as the spacecraft abruptly slows from its initial speed of 12,000 mph (19,300 km/h) down to just 5 mph (8 km/h) when the lander touches down.

For NASA's InSight Mars Lander, All Systems Are Go for Monday Touchdown

 

[HAL9000]

Rest of the cartoon is here........


On November 26th, a mole will land on Mars - The Oatmeal

 

[2hats]

Navigation team indicates latest estimate of atmospheric entry time is 19:42:27UTC. Insight is now well inside both Mars' Hill Sphere and Sphere of Influence.

 

[editor]

I so hope this survives the tricky landing process. Come on InSight!

 

[editor]

Rest of the cartoon is here........


On November 26th, a mole will land on Mars - The Oatmeal

That's a brilliant cartoon.

 

[2hats]

TCM-6 performed overnight to fine tune the landing ellipse and current atmospheric entry time now revised to 19:47:00UTC.

e2a: Navigation indicates InSight (and the companion nanosat MarCO-B) will pass within about 2000km of Mars’ moon Phobos this evening around 1910UTC.

Currently just over 41000km from Mars.

 

[Limejuice]

Okay: Nasa coverage in another tab.

Beer: first one open.

Snacks: on standby.

*ready*

 

[2hats]

Obligatory, frivolous, vaguely mission related post to pad the time until the ride down:

 

[editor]

What's the expected time for a notification of a (hopefully) successful touch down?

 

[2hats]

InSight is starting to feel the tug of Mars now and beginning to accelerate as it plunges towards the top of the Martian atmosphere (currently less than 2000km above the surface). Entry interface now expected at 19:46:39UTC (all times Earth receive time unless stated; one way light time is 8m7s).

A hint of a successful touch down might be determined in (near) ‘real time’ if radio telescopes on Earth are able to pick up the low gain UHF carrier tones from InSight (deductions about the state of the lander will be made on the back of the Doppler characteristics of that signal but no in situ data recorded by sensors on the spacecraft itself will be decoded). The accompanying MarCO nanosats trailing the lander might (if they work - they are experimental) relay the UHF data from the lander itself almost immediately. There might be a delay though until a stronger high gain X band signal is broadcast about 7 minutes after the landing (this signal is strong enough to convey actual data directly to Earth) - this is the signal engineers are looking for as it will indicate the lander has passed its health self-check. Then they will have to wait a few more hours to get confirmation of the successful solar array deploy (which physically occurs 16-32 minutes after landing) which is the final key point of the landing phase - only then will the lander be ready for its science mission.

 

[2hats]

So to re-iterate: entry at 1947UT, landing 1953UT, first X band health check 2001UT, earliest possible image 2005UT (though the dust cap will still be on - it isn’t ejected until after solar array deploy is completed, when a second clearer shot will be taken).

 

[2hats]

The nanosats (MarCO-A, MarCO-B) are both healthy so should be in a position to perform bent-pipe comms for the lander (relay data in ‘real time’).

 

[2hats]

Cruise stage separation next up in about 1 minute. The lander will perform a rotational avoidance manoeuvre to avoid a collision on the way down (the cruise stage will also enter the atmosphere of Mars).

 

[2hats]

UHF carrier detected. MarCO bent pipe carrier locks.

ie all comms are up

 

[2hats]

Cruise stage separation confirmed.

 

[2hats]

Entry turn completed.

 

[Mumbles274]

BBC has a live feed.of mission control

 

[2hats]

 

[2hats]

90 seconds to entry.

 

[Mumbles274]

Well on facebook. Not sure about the website version

 

[2hats]

Nanosat telemetry flowing.

 

[Limejuice]

Huzzah for plucky cube-sats!