There is always a difficult day when a mission comes to an end. And it’s even more relaxed when the mission never went in the first place.
That’s where we have a NASA InSight speaker. The whole mission is not over, but the Mole, the instrument designed and built by the German DLR, has been declared dead.
The Mole is, of course, the Heat Stream and Physical Premises Pack (HP3). It is an instrument designed to measure the heat flowing from a Martian interior to the surface. The entire InSight mission (Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy, and Heat Transport) aimed to find out more about the interior of Mars.
HP3 is perhaps the most important and complex instrument on the surface. So losing it is a big blow to science. But it was always difficult to implement, and mission planners knew that.
The Mole’s job was to dig into the Martian surface to a depth of up to 5 meters. A tent would attach the Mole to the surface, and throughout that tent heat sensors are evenly distributed. By studying thermal features inside the planet, scientists could have learned a lot about their geological history.
But it was always difficult to get the instrument into the ground. The Mole is a self-hammering instrument designed to work its way down to the surface slowly.
The weight and energy weight of the mission made it impossible to drive a more powerful, more powerful way to drive the instrument into the ground.
Since taking up his post in March 2019, the Hub has run into difficulties. At first he made some progress, but after entering a few centimeters he stopped.
Initially, mission workers thought it was closed by a rock.
Universe Today has covered the Mole saga in a series of articles. There were signs of progress and signs of despair along the way. But over time it became clear what prevented the Mole from achieving its potential.
The surface of Mars where the InSight surface is located is covered with a type of earth called duracrust. It is a layer of soil that does not fall back into the Mill hole as it works its way down. That is a problem.
The Mole relies on rubbing between himself and those around him. But because duracrust is too hard and will not flow into the hole, it does not provide the required friction.
Mission staff tried everything to lose the forest. They used the instrumental arm scoop to press down on the Mole. They used it to put pressure on both sides of the Mole. And they would use it to try to get the soil that was needed into the hole. Each method offered some hope, but in the end, the Mole could not get deep enough to do science.
Now the Mole has been declared dead, after last 500 hammer strokes, and finally in January.
“We’ve given it all we have, but Mars and our heroic mole are irresistible,” said HP3 chief analyst Tilman Spohn of DLR.
But all is not lost.
The landlord’s other instruments, including his seismometer, are still working. So the mission still has scientific value. And while the mole has failed, despite the best efforts of humans at NASA and the DLR, failure can sow the seeds of future successes.
“Fortunately, we’ve learned a lot that will benefit future missions that try to dig into the subtext,” Spohn said.
InPLight lander test bed facility at JPL. (NASA / JPL-Caltech / IPGP)
This is the first time a mission has attempted to dig into a Martian surface like this, so the entire effort was in an unrecorded area. There was no way of knowing what would happen to the Mole for sure. But this has been very interesting, as members of the Mole team tried to find a way out.
“We are so proud of our team who have worked so hard to bring the InSight mole deeper into the planet. It was amazing to see them get into trouble from millions of miles away,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, co-administrator. for science at the group’s headquarters in Washington.
“This is why we are taking risks at NASA – we need to push the boundaries of technology to learn what works and what doesn’t. In that sense, we have succeeded: We has learned a great deal that will benefit future missions to Mars and elsewhere, and we thank our German partners from DLR for providing this instrument and for their cooperation. “
An artist’s concept of NASA’s InSight Mars lander fully utilized. (NASA / JPL-Caltech)
Other missions have given us a clear view of the Martian surface. Mission designers believed that Mole’s hammer design would give him the best chance of accomplishing his mission. From a point of view, that was the right call. But the duricrust was a surprise and proved to be too much of an obstacle to overcome. Although it failed, the whole campaign was unique from the start.
“The mud is a tool without heritage. What we tried to do – dig it so deep with such a small machine – is unparalleled,” said Troy Hudson, a scientist and engineer at NASA’s Jet Dedication Laboratory in Southern California who have led efforts to delve the mole deeper into the Martian bark.
“The biggest reward is to have had the opportunity to take this all the way to the end.”
The other parts of InSight ‘s mission continue. The SEIS (Seismic Test for Internal Structure) is still busy measuring Marsquakes and other events, and the RISE (Circulation Test and Internal Structure Test) instrument is still working to determine the size of an iron-filled heart. Mars. The landlord’s weather station is still working, too.
InSight was launched in May 2018, and landed on Mars on November 26, 2018. The Mole was launched on February 12, 2019. The mission was extended to December 2022.
This article was originally published by Universe Today. Read the original article.