THEMIS Image of the Day, November 27, 2018. Today’s VIS image shows several small channels. These channels are along the break in topography, that leads down into Argyre Planitia.
Argyre Planitia and Hellas Planitia are deep basins in the southern hemisphere produced by the impacts of very large meteorites.
Sol 0, November 26, 2018. The lander’s Instrument Deployment Camera (IDC) snaps a view of the top deck. Unlike the Instrument Context Camera, which is mounted on the lander body, this camera is on the instrument arm.
Each IDC image has a field of view of 45 x 45 degrees. Click the image to enlarge it.
Raw images (in .PNG format) here.
At just before 9pm Central European Time on 26 November, Mars will receive a new visitor: NASA’s InSight lander. (…)
Since InSight’s study is focused on sensing the planet’s interior, surface geology is not such an important factor in deciding the landing site as it is for other missions. Therefore, it is targeting a flat, stable surface in the Elysium Planitia region, which is captured in this wide field view from ESA’s Mars Express Visual Monitoring Camera taken on 29 February 2016 (click here for a labelled view). (…)
In the image shown here, Elysium Planitia is located roughly between the dark features at the bottom right (which includes Gale Crater), and the brighter arc-shaped feature above, to the right of the centre of the image, which is the location of volcano Elysium Mons. The north polar ice cap is seen at the top of the image. (…)
ESA has already been supporting InSight’s mission with its ground station network throughout the cruise to Mars, following the mission’s launch in May 2018. The joint ESA-Roscosmos Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) of the ExoMars mission, which arrived at Mars in October 2016, is ready to support data relay from InSight several times per day once it has landed safely, as required. Mars Express will also be prepared to support, on NASA’s request, ad hoc relay contacts with InSight in case of emergency… [More at link]
Branched ridges in northeast Arabia Terra. Could these features be inverted stream channels and a depositional (alluvial) fan?
Beautiful Mars series. [More at links]
Elysium Planitia, as seen through a dust-spattered dust cover. Click the image to enlarge it.
NASA’s InSight Mars lander acquired this image of the area in front of the lander using its lander-mounted, Instrument Context Camera (ICC).
This image was acquired on November 26, 2018, Sol 0 of the InSight mission where the local mean solar time for the image exposures was 13:34:21. Each ICC image has a field of view of 124 x 124 degrees.
Raw images (in .PNG format) here.
InSight is down on the ground on Elysium Planitia. More here.
[Originally broadcast November 25, 2018]
THEMIS Image of the Day, November 26, 2018. Today’s VIS image shows a small section of Nirgal Vallis.
Located in Noachis Terra, Nirgal Vallis was carved by water and forms one of the longest valley systems on Mars.
On Nov. 26, NASA’s InSight spacecraft will blaze through the Martian atmosphere and attempt to set a lander gently on the surface of the Red Planet in less time than it takes to hard-boil an egg.
InSight’s entry, descent and landing (EDL) team, based at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, along with another part of the team at Lockheed Martin Space in Denver, have pre-programmed the spacecraft to perform a specific sequence of activities to make this possible.
The following is a list of expected milestones for the spacecraft, assuming all proceeds exactly as planned and engineers make no final changes the morning of landing day.
Some milestones will be known quickly only if the experimental Mars Cube One (MarCO) spacecraft are providing a reliable communications relay from InSight back to Earth. The primary communications path for InSight engineering data during the landing process is through NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Mars Odyssey. Those data are expected to become available several hours after landing.
If all goes well, MarCO may take a few seconds to receive and format the data before sending it back to Earth at the speed of light. The one-way time for a signal to reach Earth from Mars is eight minutes and seven seconds on Nov. 26. Times listed below are in Earth Receive Time, or the time JPL Mission Control may receive the signals relating to these activities.
[More at link]
Dust devil tracks in the Diacria region. Our eye might deceive us, but that bright spot in the enhanced color image looks suspiciously like a dust devil in action. Hmmm….
Beautiful Mars series. [More at links]
