News from planet Mars

Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

On May 4, 2022, the Mars InSight Lander seismometer recorded a long-awaited “big one”. A marsquake measuring 5 on the Richter scale. The largest quake recorded on another planet, though far below the largest quakes recorded on planet Earth. The Mars InSight Lander seismometer is part of the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS) payload that was sent to Mars. Together with other mission instruments, SEIS is also the first Mars exploration instrument that was taken off the deck of the lander, and placed on the surface of Mars. Thus, the Martian seismometer has a dome, shielding it against heat, wind and dust on Mars. See the photo below of the InSight lander, showing deployment of the SEIS dome, on the Maritan surface, at the onset of the mission in 2018, and the (dustless) solar panels on each side of the lander.

InSight is an acronym for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport. The mission’s robotic spacecraft, launched on May 5, 2018 from the Vandenberg Air Force Base, in California, on an Atlas V launch system, landed on November 26, 2018, at the Elysium Planitia site, straddling the Martian equator. The InSight spacecraft was launched with two CubeSats, called Mars Cube One or MarCOs. Briefcase-size satellites that went into orbit behind the Insight Space capsule, and that were designed to relay communication about the Insight spacecraft, upon entry, descent, and landing on the Martian surface.

The scientific purposes of the InSight mission were twofold: 1. Understanding the formation and evolution of Mars, and 2. Determining the level of tectonic activity on Mars. Thus, the InSight mission was the first mission designed to study the inner core of planet Mars, formed 4.5 billion years ago, and its vital signs: pulse (seismic activity), temperature (heat flow), and reflexes (precision tracking).

Using radio frequencies, the Rotation and Interior Structure Experiment (RISE) antennas were designed to track the exact position of the InSight lander on Mars. The RISE instruments reflected back the signal sent from Earth to the lander, thus also determining the exact position of Mars. In turn, tracking the position of Mars was designed to calculate how much the planet Mars wobbles, as it orbits the sun. A calculation intended to bring further insight into the composition and structure of the Mars core, particularly the question of whether the Mars core is solid or liquid.

The Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3) was designed to burrow, almost 16 feet deep into the surface of Mars, to measure heat flow, from the core to the surface of Mars. However, the instrument malfunctioned, due to the unanticipated differences in Martian soil properties, which prevented the tool from boring into the soil, to reach any depth.

Weather instruments, the Temperature and Winds for InSight (TWINS) suite, onboard the InSight lander, also relayed meteorological data from Mars (1).

The May 4th marsquake was recorded on the 1,222nd Martian day, or sol, of the InSight Lander mission. A mission scheduled to end in December 2022, due to dwindling power supply, unrenewed by the solar panels, now thickly covered with Martian soil dust. The Youtube video below shows a seismograph and sonification of the signals recorded on May 4th, on Mars, using the Mars Insight lander seismometer.  

Note

(1) The SEIS and HP3 instruments were essentially provided by the European Space Agency, bringing together the French Aerospace Agency, (CNES), the Institut de Physique du Globe de l'Université de Paris (IPGP), the German Aerospace Center (DLR), the German Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS), the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich), as well as the Imperial College (in the UK) and the Space Research Center (CBK) of the Polish Academy of Sciences and Astronika. The RISE instruments were provided by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL).

Reference
NASA Insight Lander Mission
https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/

NASA’s Insight records monster quake on Mars
https://mars.nasa.gov/news/9185/nasas-insight-records-monster-quake-on-mars/

NASA Mars Insight Mission: The Instruments
https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/spacecraft/instruments/summary/

NASA Mars Insight Mission: The Instruments - RISE
https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/spacecraft/instruments/rise/

NASA NASA Mars Insight Mission: The Instruments – SEIS
https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/spacecraft/instruments/seis/

NASA Mars Insight Mission: The Instruments – HP
https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/spacecraft/instruments/hp3/

NASA Mars Weather
https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/weather/

NASA’s Perseverance Rover Mission: Unbelievable!

 Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

 The perfectly planned, and so far, flawlessly executed 2020, NASA-led, Perseverance Rover, robotic explorer mission to Mars, stands on the shoulders of many giants that dared to stumble. In other words, nothing quite compares to the treat that NASA offered to the world, on Feb 18th, 2021. Since 1960, when the first Soviet Marsnik1 probe was launched, and failed to reach Earth orbit, many essentially Soviet and US-led missions, as well as Japanese, Indian, European Space Agency, Chinese, and most recently United Arab Emirate (UAE) missions, have been launched (NASA TimeLine; NASA Chronology). Mars exploration missions, such as deep space probes, orbiters mapping the Martian environment, landers on Martian soil, rovers, robotic explorers, and the latest hybrid aircraft-spacecraft Ingenuity, many of which failed. Missions that failed to launch, to orbit, to detach, to enter the Martian atmosphere, to communicate with Earth, or otherwise that missed their targets. Fortunately, however, the missions failed not without significantly informing both the theory and practice of space exploration, and its connected domains in engineering, physics, chemistry, astronomy, robotics, informatics, plus more.

Perhaps then, in light of an international time-line history of Mars exploration fraught with failures, that the name "Perseverance" of the 2020 mission Rover, acquires higher significance, next to all the hurdles of the COVID-19 pandemic (NASA Chronology). In any event, it certainly explains the NASA scientists’ disappointment-defense mantra: “We get what we get and we don’t get upset.."(NASA Press Conference Feb. 22, 2021) A mantra that perhaps also uncovers the true vulnerability of working with such data magnitude, scale and complexity, considering after all, that the 2020 mission finally worked “to an unbelievably perfect T”, with footage so awesome that many folks find it truly hard to walk away from their viewing screens.

Actually, Mars is a very solicited planet in 2021. Aside from the US NASA Perseverance Rover mission, together with the Ingenuity aircraft tucked inside its belly, several spacecraft are already orbiting, or exploring Mars (NASA Perseverance). Specifically, the US rovers Curiosity and Insight continue to operate on Mars, and six orbiters (three US, two European and one Indian) are observing Mars (Associated Press, 2020; NASA Insight; NASA Curiosity). 

Additionally, no less than two new Mars exploration missions were also launched, at about the same time as the US Perseverance Rover mission on July 30th, 2020. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) orbiter mission called Amal (“Hope” in Arabic) was launched on July 15th, 2020, from the Tanegashima Space Center, in Japan. The Amal orbiter mission, controlled in Dubai, is designed to monitor global Martian weather (Barrett, A., 2020). Whereas, the China-led Probe, first-of-its-kind-combination orbiter-lander-rover mission, designated “Tianwen” (Questions for Heaven in Chinese), was launched on July 23rd, 2020, from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site in Hainan, China. The Chinese probe successfully started orbiting Mars on February 10th, 2021, with a perigee of about 400 kilometers, and a circling period of 10 days. The Chinese lander, together with its rover payload, will detach from the orbiter some time in May or June 2021, for entry into the Martian Atmosphere. The anticipated touchdown site is the Utopia Planitia Crater. The lander will unfurl a ramp, for the still un-named Chinese rover to roll out, and begin exploration (Stein, 2020).

All three missions, the US Perseverance robotic explorer, the UAE Amal Probe orbiter, and the China TianWen  Probe, combination orbiter-lander-rover,  launched in the summer 2020, were taking advantage of a favorable alignment of Earth and Mars, which only occurs every 26 months (Associated Press, 2020; Child, 2020; Lemonick, 2019).  An alignment, which essentially makes the travel time shorter, and entry into the Martian atmosphere easier.

Before safely touching down on Mars, exactly as planned, on February 18th, 2021, the NASA Perseverance Rover, together with the Ingenuity aircraft tucked beneath it, survived an imagination-defying, 300-million mile journey. A perilous journey, beginning with takeoff from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, in Florida, inside a spacecraft capsule, onboard an Atlas C-451 rocket (NASA - Launch). Takeoff was shortly followed by separation of the capsule from the rocket, and a 7-month solar-powered cruise through space, at a speed of approx. 26,900 mph (NASA - Cruise). A cruise culminating in the most intense part of the journey, consisting in the 7-minute, scorching temperature, 9G vibration Entry into the Martian atmosphere, Descent and Landing of the spacecraft on Martian soil (NASA - Landing; EDL phase). An EDL phase that included such critical maneuvers as cruise stage separation, Martian atmospheric entry at 12,500 mph, with a dramatic heat peak measured at 2370 degrees Fahrenheit (1300 degrees Celsius) caused by massive speed desceleration to 1000 mph, using Martian atmosphere, followed by parachute deployment, separation of the heat shield and aeroshell protection, firing of the descent stage retro-rockets, and separation from the descent stage to touchdown (see image below), most of which was captured on video camera, in otherwise unbelievable, mesmerizing clarity (NASA JPL - Simulated EDL video; NASA (non-simulated) Video - Descent & Touchdown).

  The below image shows a (non-simulated) top-down view, taken from the retro-rocket powered descent stage. The top-down view shows the Perseverance Rover being lowered onto Martian soil, using bridles, for touchdown exactly on the Jezero Crater, some 300 million miles away. The umbilical cord also visible is the data cable, sending information back and forth to the descent stage, including captured video data, from which this still was extracted.

Reference

Associated Press (July 13, 2020) Missions to Mars: U.S., Mars: U.S., China, UAE prepare to send spacecraft to the red planet  https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-07-13/us-china-uae-send-spacecraft-to-mars

Barrett, A. (July 20, 2020) UAS Mars mission 'Hope Probe' launches successfully.   https://www.sciencefocus.com/news/uae-mars-mission-hope-probe-launches-successfully/

Child, D. (Feb. 02-2021) Space race: UAE, US and Chinese missions prepare to explore Mars https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2021/2/8/space-race-uae-us-and-chinese-missions-prepare-to-explore-mars

Lemonick, S. (Juy 21, 2019) Three rovers will head to mars in 2020. Here’s what you need to know about their chemical missions. Astrochemisty Society.   https://cen.acs.org/physical-chemistry/astrochemistry/3-rovers-head-Mars-2020/97/i2 9 

NASA Mars Exploration time line (1964 - 2016)  https://mars.nasa.gov/mars-exploration/timeline/

NASA History Division - A chronology of Mars exploration (1960 – 2016)   https://history.nasa.gov/marschro.htm

NASA - Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover Mission Overview   https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/mission/overview/

NASA - Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover Mission Launch  https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/timeline/launch/

NASA - Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover Mission Cruise   https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/timeline/cruise/

NASA - Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover Mission Landing   https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/timeline/landing/

NASA – MARS Entry, Descent and Landing   https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/timeline/landing/entry-descent-landing/

NASA JPL Video Simulation - Perseverance's Entry Descent and Landing   https://youtu.be/M4tdMR5HLtg

NASA - Mars Curiosity Rover  https://mars.nasa.gov/msl/home/

NASA – Mars Insight Mission   https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/

NASA - 6 things to know about NASA's Mars Ingenuity helicopter    https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/6-things-to-know-about-nasas-ingenuity-mars-helicopter

NASA (April 3, 2020) NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover Gets Its Wheels and Air Brakes  https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasas-perseverance-mars-rover-gets-its-wheels-and-air-brakes

NASA – Press Conference Transacript – Febraury 22, 2021 Perseverance Rover searches for life on Mars.  https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/nasa-press-conference-transcript-february-22-perseverance-rover-searches-for-life-on-mars

NASA Video (non-simulated) - Perseverance descent and touchdown    https://youtu.be/4czjS9h4Fpg

NASA reinventing the wheel   https://www.nasa.gov/specials/wheels/

NASA Perseverance Rover Wheels (specs)  https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/spacecraft/rover/wheels/

Stein, V. (Feb. 7, 2020)Tianwen-1: China's first Mars mission   https://www.space.com/tianwen-1.html#:~:text=Tianwen%2D1%20is%20China's%20first,of%20the%20COVID%2D19%20pandemic