This new data release (n° 3) from SEIS includes raw and calibrated data from July 1st, 2019 to September 30, 2019 and, for the first time, the Mars Seismic Catalogue provided by the Marsquake service (MQS).
Mars Seismic Catalogues (new SEIS Products section)
NASA has succeeded in setting down on Mars the InSight probe’s seismometer. This is the first time in the history of spaceflight that an instrument has been deployed by a robotic arm (IDA) on the surface of another planet. The success of what is a critical step for the rest of the mission is the result of years of unrelenting technical efforts by US, French and European teams.
On the evening of 19 December 2018, NASA’s InSight lander marked the history of space exploration by becoming the first interplanetary exploration spacecraft ever to have placed a scientific instrument on the surface of another planet using its robotic instrument deployment arm (IDA).
On 16 July at 17:43 in France, the InSight probe’s SEIS seismometer was powered up for the first time in space for around ten minutes. All the data received by the ground segment were as expected, proving that InSight’s passenger was in perfect health.
Shortly after landing on 26 November 2018, the InSight lander began detailed mapping of the few square metres of terrain southward and just in front of the robotic IDA used to deploy its two main instruments. Using the instrument deployment camera (IDC) on the robotic IDA, the lander methodically swept the sector where the SEIS seismometer and the HP3 heat flow sensor were going to be set down, downlinking numerous data to project engineers and geologists.
InSight blasts its way through the fog
All space missions have a long and complex history—sometimes spanning decades—marked by the numerous technical, scientific, financial or organizational obstacles they have to overcome. Yet everything converges towards one critical step without which nothing can happen, and which teams work towards with a mixture of great pride and nagging anxiety: the launch.
The SEIS Martian seismometer was successfully tested at Germany’s Black Forest Observatory
From 12 to 16 March 2018, an international team of engineers and geophysicists carried out performance tests on the qualification model of the SEIS seismometer planned to be deployed in November 2018 by the InSight lander on Mars.
Despite the incredible complexity of Martian probes that have landed on Mars, it is by no means easy to find the Red Planet’s geographic north! To obtain the accuracy required of SEIS during its operation, seismologists need to know exactly where it is located and which direction it is facing following its deployment on the Martian soil by InSight’s robotic arm, the IDA, on 19 December 2018. However, a conventional compass is useless on Mars.
The SEIS seismometer’s commissioning period, which began once the wind and thermal shield (WTS) had been placed in position on Saturday 2 February 2019, ended on 5 April 2019. During this period, several crucial operations were successfully carried out on the seismic sensors, and especially the VBB pendulums.
In the first two parts of this series of articles on the deployment of the SEIS seismometer on Mars, we saw first the instrument’s levelling, then the centring of the VBB pendulums, and finally the different steps needed to correctly deploy the ribbon cable (tether) that connects the seismometer to the InSight lander. This third and final part focuses on the critical positioning of the wind and thermal shield (WTS), which was successfully completed on 2 February 2019 during sol 66.
The first part of this series of articles on the deployment of SEIS on Mars covered the instrument’s levelling, the centring of the VBB pendulums, and the first steps needed to correctly install the ribbon cable (tether) that connects the seismometer to the InSight lander. This second part focuses on the optimized deployment of the tether, which was far from easy considering it was done via a robot on a different planet! Before focusing on this key operation, however, let us finish looking at the end of the levelling operations.
Following the successful positioning of the SEIS seismometer on InSight’s landing site on 19 December 2018, mission engineers and scientists completed several key steps in this exceptional instrument’s commissioning process. Whether on Earth or Mars, the quality of a seismometer’s installation is crucial for it to operate at its best. On the Red Planet, however, operations have to be carried out remotely by robotic devices, which requires a combination of great expertise, care and... as you will see, a good dose of patience!
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Realized by IPGPContact : P. Labrot |
@ NASA InSight
NASA InSight
