Tag Archives: Interior Exploration Using Seismic Investigations Geodesy and Heat Transport

HiRISE: InSight lander on Mars

Posted on December 13, 2018 by rburnham

This is a HiRISE image of the NASA InSight lander, plus other pieces of hardware on Mars after its successful landing on 26 November 2018.It looks like the heat shield (upper right) has its dark outside facing down, since it … Continue reading →

Posted in Reports | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off

InSight: First selfie

Posted on December 12, 2018 by rburnham

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 →

Posted in Reports | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off

InSight: Listening to the wind on Mars

Posted on December 7, 2018 by rburnham

NASA’s Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) lander, which touched down on Mars just 10 days ago, has provided the first ever “sounds” of Martian winds on the Red Planet. A media teleconference about these sounds … Continue reading →

Posted in Reports | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off

InSight: Solar panel deployed, more to come —

Posted on December 7, 2018 by rburnham

Sol 10, December 7, 2018. InSight is continuing to set up shop on Elysium Planitia; the Instrument Deployment Camera (IDC) is recording the steps as the spacecraft unpacks after the trip from Earth. Each IDC image has a field of … Continue reading →

Posted in Reports | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off

InSight: Flexing the arm

Posted on December 6, 2018 by rburnham

New images from NASA’s Mars InSight lander show its robotic arm is ready to do some lifting. With a reach of nearly 6 feet (2 meters), the arm will be used to pick up science instruments from the lander’s deck, … Continue reading →

Posted in Reports | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off

InSight: New home ‘a large sandbox’

Posted on December 1, 2018 by rburnham

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 →

Posted in Reports | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off

InSight is catching rays on Mars

Posted on November 27, 2018 by rburnham

NASA’s InSight has sent signals to Earth indicating that its solar panels are open and collecting sunlight on the Martian surface. NASA’s Mars Odyssey orbiter relayed the signals, which were received on Earth at about 5:30 p.m. PST (8:30 p.m. … Continue reading →

Posted in Reports | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off

Task done, InSight’s MarCO says Farewell to Mars

Posted on November 27, 2018 by rburnham

[Ed. note: For more on this image and the role played by the MarCO CubeSats, see here.] MarCO-B, one of the experimental Mars Cube One (MarCO) CubeSats, took this image of Mars from about 4,700 miles (6,000 kilometers) away during … Continue reading →

Posted in Reports | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off

InSight: Top deck view from the IDC

Posted on November 27, 2018 by rburnham

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 … Continue reading →

Posted in Reports | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off

European Space Agency: Supporting InSight

Posted on November 26, 2018 by rburnham

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 … Continue reading →

Posted in Reports | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off