[HN Gopher] InSight's Final Selfie ___________________________________________________________________ InSight's Final Selfie Author : lelf Score : 33 points Date : 2022-05-25 20:32 UTC (2 hours ago) (HTM) web link (www.jpl.nasa.gov) (TXT) w3m dump (www.jpl.nasa.gov) | jonah wrote: | Maybe on the next rover, they can include a brush or blower on | the arm so they can dust off the solar panels occasionally. | LeoPanthera wrote: | InSight is a non-mobile ground station, not a rover. | | The rovers can position themselves such that wind removes dust. | mortenlarsen wrote: | So it only needed a "turn-table" base? | LeoPanthera wrote: | I'm sure it's not that simple, but I suspect that it simply | isn't worth it to launch extra mass to Mars. InSight was | successful in its mission, I don't know what value would be | gained from extending its life further. | Aperocky wrote: | wondering if rotating solar panel works. just rotate 180 | degrees to dump sand to the ground and then back. | potiuper wrote: | The sweeper arm idea is better for panels on Earth due to | humidity: https://news.mit.edu/2022/solar-panels-dust- | magnets-0311 Electrostatic based solutions using a layer called | an electrodynamic screen that was introduced in the early 1970s | using interdigitated electrodes has potential for moistureless | environments like Mars. But, the development cost for ad hoc | Mars application is a high barrier. | ffhhj wrote: | Maybe a series of thin plastic layers that can be pulled | inside a container every few months, sort of a carpet- | umbrella. | pavon wrote: | Eventually we'll have equipment on Mars that we want to | function for a long duration, and we'll need to solve that | problem, but for InSight (and others) death by dust was by | design. | | It costs money to operate these probes with a whole staff here | on earth monitoring, commanding and analyzing the data that we | receive. After some time you get diminishing returns on how | much you can learn from the same probe, and would be better off | paying these people to work on a new probe (improved using what | you have learned) or even an identical probe, deployed | elsewhere on the planet. | | When these missions are designed that is taken into | consideration to determine the desired lifespan of the mission, | and the probe is designed to that lifespan (with some margin). | Spending money (or worse mass) to make a component survive well | beyond that lifespan would be a waste, and could cut into the | (fiscal or mass) budget resulting in tradeoffs that make the | probe less capable during the lifespan it has. | | Insight was designed to operate for at least two years with | margin. It has hit the limits of that margin after four years | and it's time to shut it down. | LeoPanthera wrote: | Because the linked article doesn't explain, here's the Wikipedia | blurb about what InSight is/was: | | The Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy | and Heat Transport (InSight) mission is a robotic lander designed | to study the deep interior of the planet Mars. It was | manufactured by Lockheed Martin Space Systems, is managed by | NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), and most of its | scientific instruments were built by European agencies. The | mission launched on 5 May 2018 at 11:05:01 UTC aboard an Atlas | V-401 launch vehicle and successfully landed at Elysium Planitia | on Mars on 26 November 2018 at 19:52:59 UTC. InSight traveled | 483x106 km (300x106 mi) during its journey. As of 25 May 2022, | InSight has been active on Mars for 1242 sols (1276 days; 3 | years, 180 days). | | InSight's objectives are to place a seismometer, called Seismic | Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS), on the surface of Mars | to measure seismic activity and provide accurate 3D models of the | planet's interior; and measure internal heat transfer using a | heat probe called HP3 to study Mars' early geological evolution. | This could bring a new understanding of how the Solar System's | terrestrial planets - Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars - and Earth's | Moon form and evolve. | | The lander was originally planned for launch in March 2016. An | instrument problem delayed the launch beyond the 2016 launch | window. NASA officials rescheduled the InSight launch to May 2018 | and during the wait the instrument was repaired. This increased | the total cost from US$675 million to US$830 million. NASA stated | that due to excessive dust on its solar panels preventing it from | recharging, they plan to put InSight in low-power mode for | detecting seisemic events in July 2022 and continue monitoring | the lander through the operational period ending in December | 2022. | | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/InSight | gfodor wrote: | I have no recollection of this lander. Strange. ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2022-05-25 23:00 UTC)