It’s been a busy few weeks on Mars, with the InSight Lander arriving in late November, making it the newest member of the Martian robotic ground team. The science hasn’t started yet, but the first photos of the landing area have come back, and testing of the science instruments has begun, with the first big reveal coming late last week – the first recording of Martian wind. Landed Martian robots can be found all over Mars. Note that most are no longer operational. Credit: NASA InSight provided the first landing on Mars since Curiosity in 2013. It went through the...
The Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) mission, originally set to launch in March of 2016, has been delayed. It’s not yet clear when it will launch, but it certainly won’t be on schedule for March. The reason for the scrub is that a major science instrument on the lander has been having issues. The French-made Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS) requires a vacuum seal around three main sensors to protect them from the Martian environment. This vacuum seal allows them to detect seismic activity on Mars, and notice any ground movements as small as...
The next mission to Mars, called InSight (Interior Exploration Using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport), is slated to launch in Spring of 2016. It will be the first stationary lander to investigate the internal structure of Mars and search for seismic activity, ie marsquakes! NASA has always been good at including space enthusiasts in the public in their missions, giving them a human feel, and this mission is no exception. You can sign up to have your name included on a silicon microchip on the lander! In the first 24 hours, NASA has had 67,000 people sign up, and they expect...
Occasionally it’s strange to see photos from the Curiosity Rover on Mars. Some of them feel distinctly like home. I can almost imagine a person walking by on the soft sand, through the pathway of rocks, and over the horizon, like a traveller navigating the desert. The latest panorama of Mars gives me that feeling in spades. And yet, this rusty world has too thin an atmosphere to allow a human to breathe. It has no water to drink, and intense radiation from the Sun that prevents life from blanketing its surface. It is human, and yet alien. No homo...
A few weeks back, the Philae lander woke up and began transmitting the coveted science data it had been holding on to for the better part of 2015, waiting for the Sun to shine bright enough to wake it from its deep slumber. As soon as it was able, it transmitted data back to the Rosetta orbiter, which then sent it on its long journey back home to Earth. Now that a few weeks have passed, we can finally see what the first science from the surface of 67P looks like, and determine its true fate. We can clearly see a...
