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Tag Archives: Heat Flow and Physical Properties Probe
InSight: Uncovering ‘the Mole’
Behold the “mole”: The heat-sensing spike that NASA’s InSight lander deployed on the Martian surface is now visible. Last week, the spacecraft’s robotic arm successfully removed the support structure of the mole, which has been unable to dig, and placed … Continue reading
InSight: Getting the Mole moving again
Scientists and engineers have a new plan for getting NASA InSight’s heat probe, also known as the “mole,” digging again on Mars. Part of an instrument called the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3), the mole is a self-hammering … Continue reading
InSight: Lander’s ‘mole’ pauses digging
NASA’s Mars InSight lander has a probe designed to dig up to 16 feet (5 meters) below the surface and measure heat coming from inside the planet. After beginning to hammer itself into the soil on Thursday, Feb. 28, the … Continue reading
InSight update, Sol 92, by Emily Lakdawalla, The Planetary Society
The mole did hit a rock. Mars could’ve given us a break, but it didn’t. The HP3 mole started hammering itself today, and almost immediately (after just 5 minutes) appears to have encountered a rock. After four hours of hammering, it … Continue reading
InSight update, Sols 43-83, by Emily Lakdawalla, The Planetary Society
Now that InSight has finished placing both science instruments and the wind cover, the arm’s required work is done and the science team can set about commissioning their instruments. For the heat probe instrument, commissioning involves driving its instrumented “mole” … Continue reading
Posted in Reports
Tagged Elysium Planitia, Heat Flow and Physical Properties Probe, HP3, InSight, Interior Exploration Using Seismic Investigations Geodesy and Heat Transport, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, JPL, NASA
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InSight deploys heat flow package
NASA’s InSight lander has placed its second instrument on the Martian surface. New images confirm that the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package, or HP3, was successfully deployed on Feb. 12 about 3 feet (1 meter) from InSight’s seismometer, which … Continue reading
InSight: First selfie
NASA’s InSight lander isn’t camera-shy. The spacecraft used a camera on its robotic arm to take its first selfie – a mosaic made up of 11 images. This is the same imaging process used by NASA’s Curiosity rover mission, in … Continue reading
InSight: New home ‘a large sandbox’
With InSight safely on the surface of Mars, the mission team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, is busy learning more about the spacecraft’s landing site. They knew when InSight landed on Nov. 26 that the spacecraft had … Continue reading
InSight: Studying Mars while standing still
You don’t need wheels to explore Mars. After touching down in November, NASA’s InSight spacecraft will spread its solar panels, unfold a robotic arm … and stay put. Unlike the space agency’s rovers, InSight is a lander designed to study … Continue reading
Posted in Reports
Tagged Elysium Planitia, Heat Flow and Physical Properties Probe, HP3, InSight, Interior Exploration Using Seismic Investigations Geodesy and Heat Transport, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, JPL, NASA, RISE, Rotation and Interior Structure Experiment, SEIS, Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure
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InSight: Taking Mars’ internal temperature
Ambitious climbers, forget Mt. Everest. Dream about Mars. The Red Planet has some of the tallest mountains in the solar system. They include Olympus Mons, a volcano nearly three times the height of Everest. It borders a region called the … Continue reading
Posted in Reports
Tagged DLR, heat flow, Heat Flow and Physical Properties Probe, HP3, InSight, Interior Exploration Using Seismic Investigations Geodesy and Heat Transport, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, JPL, NASA
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