{"id":13257,"date":"2019-04-03T23:10:48","date_gmt":"2019-04-03T15:10:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/insight-scientists-not-sure-stalled-mars-heat-probe-can-be-recovered\/"},"modified":"2019-04-03T23:10:48","modified_gmt":"2019-04-03T15:10:48","slug":"insight-scientists-not-sure-stalled-mars-heat-probe-can-be-recovered","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/insight-scientists-not-sure-stalled-mars-heat-probe-can-be-recovered\/","title":{"rendered":"InSight scientists not sure stalled Mars heat probe can be recovered"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A camera on the end of the InSight lander\u2019s robotic arm took this picture of the Heat and Physical Properties Package, or HP3, instrument\u2019s support structure on the Martian surface March 28. Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ground teams analyzing data from a heat probe that got stuck soon after it started digging into the Martian crust under NASA\u2019s robotic InSight lander still hope they can free the mole from an obstruction that halted its progress more than a month ago, but the mission\u2019s chief scientist says the chances of completing the heat probe experiment \u2014 one of InSight\u2019s two main science instruments \u2014 may not look promising.<\/p>\n

The InSight lander\u2019s robotic arm deployed German-built Heat and Physical Properties Package \u2014 known as HP3 \u2014 on the Martian surface in February, the second of two science instruments placed a few feet from the spacecraft since its landing Nov. 26.<\/p>\n

HP3\u2019s metallic mole began burrowing into the Martian soil Feb. 28, aiming to reach a depth of up to 16 feet (5 meters) \u2014 deeper than any previous Mars lander \u2014 with a series of thousands of hammer blows planned in several stages over several weeks.<\/p>\n

But within minutes, an obstruction stopped the mole at a depth of roughly 1 foot (30 centimeters), diverting the probe to a tilt of roughly 15 degrees. Another four-hour hammering session March 2 produced no further progress, and mission managers ordered a stop to the digging operation to allow engineers to evaluate the situation.<\/p>\n

Developed by the German Aerospace Center, DLR, the HP3 instrument is designed to gather data on underground temperatures at varying depths, giving scientists a clearer understanding of the amount of heat escaping the Martian interior. HP3 is one of two geophysics instruments InSight carried to Mars, along with a French-built seismometer, which scientists say is working better than expected.<\/p>\n

Officials suspect the mole hit a rock, with about three-fourths of the metallic probe\u2019s 16-inch (40-centimeter) length embedded in the ground, and the back end of the mole still in a support structure at the surface. A long umbilical tether with a series of temperature sensors trails out the back of the spike to route thermal conductivity data back to the lander for downlink to scientists back on Earth.<\/p>\n

Bruce Banerdt, InSight\u2019s principal investigator at NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, said March 26 that ground teams are assessing the possibility of moving the surface support structure using the lander\u2019s robotic arm. InSight is a stationary spacecraft, so the options to relocate the HP3 instrument\u2019s surface structure are limited.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s actually designed to be able to go around a rock,\u201d Banerdt said. \u201cIf it hits a rock at an angle of 45 degrees or so, it can change its direction and actually go around the rock. So we\u2019re looking at possibly moving the surface structure so that it\u2019s not being constrained at the top.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is no reverse motor on the mole, eliminating the possibility of relocating the instrument without using the robotic arm, an operation scientists consider risky.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not completely giving up yet,\u201d Banerdt said last week during a meeting of the National Academy of Sciences\u2019 Committee on Astrobiology and Planetary Science. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t look real promising, but we still have a fairly reasonable chance of being able to complete this experiment.\u201d<\/p>\n

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A diagram shows the parts of the HP3 instrument carried to Mars by the InSight lander. Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/DLR<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Engineers have used InSight\u2019s cameras and seismic sensors to diagnose the HP3 instrument\u2019s situation. During a third short hammering session March 27, ground controllers tuned the lander\u2019s seismometer to listen to the vibrations created by the mole in an attempt to assess whether the probe is pushing against a single rock or a thick layer of gravel.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe character of the seismic signal is changing, especially between the initial hammering \u2026 There are changes happening in the response,\u201d Banerdt said March 26, referring to the seismometer\u2019s measurements of the probe\u2019s first hammering operation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are changes happening in the response (of the rock),\u201d Banerdt said. \u201cWe think we can analyze some of that stuff in terms of both the reverberation of soil versus rock, and also in terms of actual individual substrokes within the hammer itself. The hammer actually has about 5 different sub-strokes as it hits and rebounds and different parts of it absorb the impact.\u201d<\/p>\n

Using a mode in the seismometer that allows it to collect up to 500 measurements per second, scientists hope to use one of InSight\u2019s science instruments to help rescue another. Cameras on the lander were also positioned close to the HP3 instrument\u2019s surface structure to watch for any movement or rotation.<\/p>\n

In an email to Spaceflight Now on Tuesday, Banerdt said ground teams continue to downlink the high-rate seismic data collected last week.<\/p>\n

The mole\u2019s hammering mechanism has a limited lifetime before its components wear down, according to Tilman Spohn, the principal investigator for the HP3 instrument at DLR. But officials are not worried about breaking the mechanism in the short term, he said.<\/p>\n

Engineers have also considered the possibility that the instrument\u2019s probe is snagged in its housing in the support structure, but Spohn believes that is unlikely. Ground teams are using a replica of the HP3 instrument on Earth to help understand the problem.<\/p>\n

In a presentation March 18 at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference near Houston, Spohn said a \u201clast resort\u201d for teams to try to get the instrument back on track could be to use InSight\u2019s robotic arm to press on the support structure to try and force the mole through the underground obstruction.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe could pick the support structure up and see whether the mole sticks out, maybe press on the mole itself,\u201d he said. \u201cThis needs to be carefully considered \u2026 Pressing on the back of it where the tether is something that I would really hate to do actually, but maybe that is our last resort.\u201d<\/p>\n

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One of InSight\u2019s two fan-shaped solar panels is visible in this image taken March 31. Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Banerdt said InSight\u2019s seismometer, which the lander placed on the Martian surface in December, is collecting good data. InSight\u2019s robotic arm covered the seismometer package with a wind and thermal shield in February, vastly reducing noise, or interference, levels in instrument\u2019s seismic measurements to levels comparable to seismometers on the moon, where there is no atmosphere or environmental perturbations.<\/p>\n

InSight\u2019s science mission is planned to last one Martian year, equivalent to two Earth years.<\/p>\n

Banerdt\u2019s science team designed InSight\u2019s mission to combine the heat probe and the seismic results to map the interior layers of Mars. The data will help researchers learn how the rocky planets formed in the ancient solar system, providing a comparison for what geologists already know about Earth.<\/p>\n

A third major science investigation on the InSight mission is the Rotation and Interior Structure Experiment, or RISE, which will use radio signals passed between the lander and Earth to measure the wobble of Mars\u2019s rotation, giving scientists an idea of the Red Planet\u2019s core size and density.<\/p>\n

Email the author.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A camera on the end of the InSight lander\u2019s robotic arm took this picture of the Heat and Physical Properties Package, or HP3, instrument\u2019s support structure on the Martian surface March 28. Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech Ground teams analyzing data from a heat probe that got stuck soon after it started digging into the Martian crust under […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[690,1914,242,455,1916,927,1183,472],"class_list":["post-13257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-cnes","tag-dlr","tag-france","tag-germany","tag-hp3","tag-insight","tag-jet-propulsion-laboratory","tag-lockheed-martin"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13257"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13257\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}