Mars inSight Mission

[MartG]

Weather shield now in place over seismometer

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-471...

[Beati Dogu]

The lander had been drilling down its heat probe for the last few days. They've hit rock though, so are giving it a rest for a while

It's supposed to be able to dig down as much as 16 feet (5 meters), but they've got down only about 35 cm (14 in).


https://mars.nasa.gov/news/8419/mars-insight-lande...

[Eric Mc]

Echoes of Apollo 15.

[crofty1984]

Eric Mc said:

Echoes of Apollo 15.

In what way?
Not trying to be awkward, I genuinely don't know much about Apollo 15.

[MartG]

crofty1984 said:

Eric Mc said:

Echoes of Apollo 15.

In what way?
Not trying to be awkward, I genuinely don't know much about Apollo 15.

They had trouble getting the core sampling tool to go in - had to resort to hammering it in

[Eric Mc]

And even more trouble getting them back out again. Once they got through the fairly loose an uncompacted first inch or so (referred to as the lunar regolith), they hit what seemed like concrete. It seems that the surface of the moon is extremely dense - at least in the Hadley Rille area where Apollo 15 landed.

[AshVX220]

I'm amazed they would have managed to get sufficient energy through the hammer in 1/6th (I think) gravity.

[Eric Mc]

I think muscle power is more important than gravity when swinging a geological hammer. They were also hampered by the suits they were wearing, which restricted shoulder movement and grip.

[MartG]

Gravity doesn't affect the kinetic energy of a hammer

[Beati Dogu]

Mass is still mass on the Earth, Moon or Mars.

As for the German-built “maulwurf” (mole) on Mars - They’ll probably take two weeks to decide to move it somewhere else.

[AshVX220]

MartG said:

Gravity doesn't affect the kinetic energy of a hammer

Every day's a school day, thanks.
Thanks also to Eric and Beati Dogu.

[Eric Mc]

There is a lot of Apollo 15 video footage on You Tube. Have a look at the sections that cover the "Heat Flow Experiment" and you will see how difficult it was for them to insert the core drills. Later, they had even more difficulty getting the drills back out again. In fact, the NASA medical people were really worried about their heart rates and oxygen usage.

[MartG]

InSight spotted by ExoMars

[Beati Dogu]

A time lapse of Martian clouds:

https://mars.nasa.gov/resources/22441/insight-imag...

[MartG]

Short video update on InSight after 2 years on the surface

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDS-xw_ECm8