InSight, MarCO-A, MarCO-B - Atlas V 401 - Vandenberg SLC-3E - 05.05.2018 - 11:05 UTC

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tnt22

https://spaceflightnow.com/2018/05/17/first-interplanetary-cubesats-already-setting-records-in-deep-space/
ЦитироватьFirst interplanetary CubeSats already setting records in deep space
May 17, 2018 | Stephen Clark


Artist's concept of the MarCO CubeSats. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Two CubeSats developed at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory launched May 5 with the InSight mission to Mars have deployed their miniaturized antennas and captured a distant family portrait of the Earth and the moon.

The twin spacecraft have already set a distance record for CubeSats, and they were moving away from Earth at a range of 1.8 million miles (2.9 million kilometers) as of Wednesday.
Спойлер
The microprobes are part of the Mars Cube One mission, a technology demonstration project that aims to test the feasibility of operating CubeSats in deep space. If successful, the two testbeds could lay the foundation for miniature spacecraft traveling to the moon, asteroids, comets and the planets, accomplishing focused scientific objectives at significantly lower cost than conventional space probes.

Known as MarCO for short, the CubeSats accompanied NASA's InSight spacecraft during its launch May 5 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Moments after the InSight probe deployed from the forward end of the upper stage of the mission's Atlas 5 launcher, the twin MarCO CubeSats released from a carrier mounted to the rocket stage's aft bulkhead.

The two satellites, each about the size of a briefcase, powered up and executed a pre-programmed sequence to activate their on-board avionics and deploy their power-generating solar panels, each with an area of just one square foot. Both CubeSats radioed their status to controllers on Earth a few hours after separating from the Atlas 5 rocket.

Some engineers were waiting anxiously for a status report from the CubeSats, which were last powered up nearly two months before launch, before their stowage inside their deployment mechanism on the rocket.

But the signals came back to Earth, confirming both spacecraft were healthy and ready for post-launch checkouts.

Controllers uplinked commands from the ground for each spacecraft, named MarCO-A and MarCO-B, to deploy two antennas. One of the antennas on each CubeSat, operating in X-band, is designed to beam signals back to Earth from distances as far away as Mars without needing much power, an essential capability for such small spacecraft.

MarCO-A and MarCO-B also deployed a UHF radio antenna, which will receive telemetry from the InSight spacecraft as it descends through the Martian atmosphere Nov. 26. The $18.5 million MarCO mission was conceived primarily as a technology demonstration, but it will attempt to relay status signals from InSight back to Earth during the craft's critical entry, descent and landing phase.

Andrew Good, a JPL spokesperson, confirmed Wednesday that all antennas on both MarCO CubeSats deployed as planned.

Each CubeSat carries a wide-field camera to verify the successful deployment of the X-band high-gain antennas. One of the validation images downlinked from MarCO-B on May 9 captured a view of the Earth as a "pale blue dot" amid the blackness of space, with the moon lurking nearby.


The first image captured by one of NASA's Mars Cube One (MarCO) CubeSats. The image, which shows both the CubeSat's unfolded high-gain antenna at right and the Earth and its moon in the center, was acquired by MarCO-B on May 9. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

"Consider it our homage to Voyager," said Andy Klesh, MarCO's chief engineer at JPL, referring to the famous "Pale Blue Dot" image of Earth taken by the Voyager 1 spacecraft from the outer solar system. "CubeSats have never gone this far into space before, so it's a big milestone. Both our CubeSats are healthy and functioning properly. We're looking forward to seeing them travel even farther."

Nearly 1,000 CubeSats have been launched since 2000, enabling commercial companies, universities, governments and other types of budget-constrained organizations cheaper access to space. A CubeSat can come in various sizes, each based on a cubic "unit" measuring around 4 inches (10 centimeters) on a side.

The MarCO spacecraft are "six-unit" CubeSats, and they are the first of their kind to leave Earth's vicinity.

Packing all the capability of a traditional spacecraft into a package as small as a CubeSat has been a challenge.

"We need to be able to communicate, to navigate, and to be able to maneuver in the deep space environment," Klesh said.

The success of InSight's landing on Mars will not depend on the MarCO CubeSats.

InSight will transmit data during its entry, descent and landing up to NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which will store the information and send it back to ground controllers more than an hour later. The time delay is required because MRO is not capable of simultaneously receiving information in one band and transmitting data in another.

Giant radio telescopes on Earth will also listen for signals radioed directly from InSight in near real-time — accounting for a time delay due to the vast distance to Mars — but the ground-based antennas are expected to only verify the lander's "aliveness" during descent and touchdown.

The MarCO CubeSats will sail by Mars at a distance of around 2,175 miles (3,500 kilometers), orienting their UHF antennas toward InSight and pointing their X-band high-gain reflectors to Earth. If the CubeSats work as intended, they will receive detailed UHF telemetry from InSight, re-format the data in an on-board computer, then beam the information to Earth in X-band.

NASA sent two 30-pound (13.5-kilogram) CubeSats for redundancy in case one of the MarCO probes runs into trouble.

Regardless of the success of the MarCO mission, or the other listening options via MRO or ground-based radio telescopes, InSight's parachute- and rocket-assisted touchdown sequence will be completely autonomous, not requiring any real-time input from engineers on Earth.

One of the crucial technologies embedded inside each MarCO spacecraft is a miniaturized "Iris" radio, about the size of a softball, that crams advanced receive and transmission functions into a package that can fit into a CubeSat. The Iris radio is designed to interface with NASA's Deep Space Network, a collection of antennas at three sites in California, Spain and Australia that connect with spacecraft traveling throughout the solar system.


Engineer Joel Steinkraus uses sunlight to test the solar arrays on one of the Mars Cube One (MarCO) spacecraft at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The MarCO CubeSats will test out their propulsion capabilities in the first of several course-correction maneuvers set for late next week, Good said.

But they do not carry the typical propellants used by satellites. Instead of a conventional liquid fuel, like hydrazine, the CubeSats will change its trajectory with compressed R236FA gas, which is commonly used in fire extinguishers.

Engineers who worked on the MarCO mission nicknamed the CubeSats "Wall-E" and "Eva," based on characters from the 2008 Pixar film. In the movie, the sentient Wall-E robot uses a fire extinguisher to propel through space.

The compressed gas supply will feed eight tiny thrusters on each CubeSat.

According to Good, the twin MarCO spacecraft will conduct their trajectory correction maneuvers one at a time to begin fine-tuning their course toward Mars.

The Atlas 5 rocket intentionally targeted a trajectory slightly offset from Mars during the May 5 launch to ensure the vehicle's Centaur upper stage would not impact the Red Planet. InSight and the twin MarCO CubeSats will bend their trajectories back toward Mars with a series of maneuvers over the coming months.

Developers are already designing and building CubeSats for future deep space missions, and results from MarCO will help ensure engineers their concepts will work far away from Earth.

Thirteen CubeSats will fly on the first launch of NASA's Space Launch System in 2020, each with standalone missions to study the moon, travel to an asteroid, and conduct other types of research and demonstrations in deep space.

NASA is also planning to seek proposals for CubeSats and other small spacecraft that could ride on future interplanetary launches, adding scientific capability and opportunities for bonus science to already-planned missions, such as the Lucy and Psyche asteroid probes set for launch in 2021 and 2022.

The space agency has funded studies of 19 interplanetary mission concepts using CubeSats and other types of "SmallSats" to help teams advance their work.
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tnt22

ЦитироватьTory Bruno‏Подлинная учетная запись @torybruno 17 мая

Feeling nostalgic for our last trip to Mars? Here's the post flight from #InSight. Mighty Atlas made another Interplanetary bullseye


tnt22

https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/news/2018/insight-steers-toward-mars
ЦитироватьMAY 23, 2018

InSight Steers Toward Mars

NASA's InSight lander has made its first course correction toward Mars.

InSight, short for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport, is the first mission dedicated to exploring the deep interior of Mars.

The lander is currently encapsulated in a protective aeroshell, which launched on top of an Atlas V 401 rocket on May 5 fr om Vandenberg Air Force Base in Central California. Yesterday, the spacecraft fired its thrusters for the first time to change its flight path. This activity, called a trajectory correction maneuver, will happen a maximum of six times to guide the lander to Mars.
Спойлер
Every launch starts with a rocket. That's necessary to get a spacecraft out past Earth's gravity -- but rockets don't complete the journey to other planets. Before launch, every piece of hardware headed to Mars is cleaned, limiting the number of Earth microbes that might travel on the spacecraft. However, the rocket and its upper stage, called a Centaur, don't get the same special treatment.

As a result, Mars launches involve aiming the rocket just off-target so that it flies off into space. Separately, the spacecraft performs a series of trajectory correction maneuvers guiding it to the Red Planet. This makes sure that only the clean spacecraft lands on the planet, while the upper stage does not come close.

Precise calculations are required for InSight to arrive at exactly the right spot in Mars' atmosphere at exactly the right time, resulting in a landing on Nov. 26. Every step of the way, a team of navigators estimates the position and velocity of the spacecraft. Then they design maneuvers to deliver it to an entry point at Mars. That navigation team is based at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, which leads the InSight mission.

"This first maneuver is the largest we'll conduct," said Fernando Abilleira of JPL, InSight's Deputy Mission Design and Navigation Manager. "The thrusters will fire for about 40 seconds to impart a velocity change of 3.8 meters per second [8.5 mph] to the spacecraft. That will put us in the right ballpark as we aim for Mars."

Especially at the beginning of that cruise, navigators rely on NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN) to track the spacecraft. The DSN is a system of antennas located at three sites around the Earth. As the planet rotates, each of these sites comes into range of NASA's spacecraft, pinging them with radio signals to track their positions. The antennas also send and receive data this way.

The DSN can give very accurate measurements about spacecraft position and velocity. But predicting wh ere InSight will be after it fires its thrusters requires lots of modeling, Abilleira said. As the cruise to Mars progresses, navigators have more information about the forces acting on a spacecraft. That lets them further refine their models. Combined with DSN tracking measurements, these models allow them to precisely drive the spacecraft to the desired entry point.

"Navigation is all about statistics, probability and uncertainty," Abilleira said. "As we gather more information on the forces acting on the spacecraft, we can better predict how it's moving and how future maneuvers will affect its path."

Yesterday's 40-second burn relies on four of eight thrusters on the spacecraft. A separate group of four is autonomously fired on a daily basis to keep the spacecraft's solar panels trained on the Sun and its antennas pointed at Earth. While necessary to maintain orientation, these small, daily firings also introduce errors that navigators have to account for and counterbalance.

"Everyone has been working hard since launch to assess what these small forces have done to the trajectory," said Allen Halsell of JPL, InSight's navigation team chief. "People have worked lots of hours to look at that. For engineers, it's a very interesting problem, and fun to try to figure out."

When the spacecraft is just a few hours from Mars, the planet's gravitational pull, or gravity well, will begin to reel the spacecraft in. At that point, InSight's team will prepare for the next milestone after cruise: entering Mars' atmosphere, descending to the surface and sticking InSight's landing.

JPL, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages InSight for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. InSight is part of NASA's Discovery Program, managed by the agency's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The InSight spacecraft, including cruise stage and lander, was built and tested by Lockheed Martin Space in Denver.

Find more information about InSight at:
https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/

Follow InSight's path to Mars by visiting NASA's Eyes on the Solar System:
https://go.nasa.gov/2FSWReg

Andrew Good
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-393-2433
andrew.c.good@jpl.nasa.gov
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tnt22

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=7147
ЦитироватьJUNE 1, 2018

NASA CubeSats Steer Toward Mars

An artist's concept of one of NASA's MarCO CubeSats. The twin MarCOs are the first CubeSats to complete a trajectory correction maneuver, firing their thrusters to guide themselves toward Mars. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
› Larger view

NASA has achieved a first for the class of tiny spacecraft known as CubeSats, which are opening new access to space.

Over the past week, two CubeSats called MarCO-A and MarCO-B have been firing their propulsion systems to guide themselves toward Mars. This process, called a trajectory correction maneuver, allows a spacecraft to refine its path to Mars following launch. Both CubeSats successfully completed this maneuver; NASA's InSight spacecraft just completed the same process on May 22.
Спойлер
The pair of CubeSats that make up the Mars Cube One (MarCO) mission both launched on May 5, along with the InSight lander, which is headed toward a Nov. 26 touchdown on the Red Planet. They were designed to trail InSight on the way to Mars, aiming to relay back data about InSight as it enters the planet's atmosphere and attempts to land. The MarCOs were never intended to collect any science data; instead, they are a test of miniaturized communication and navigation technology that can blaze a path for future CubeSats sent to other planets.

Both MarCO-A and B successfully completed a set of communications tests in the past couple of weeks, said John Baker, program manager for planetary SmallSats at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. JPL built both MarCO CubeSats and leads the mission.

"Our broadest goal was to demonstrate how low-cost CubeSat technology can be used in deep space for the first time," Baker said. "With both MarCOs on their way to Mars, we've already traveled farther than any CubeSat before them."

While MarCO-A corrected its course to Mars relatively smoothly, MarCO-B faced some unexpected challenges. Its maneuver was smaller due to a leaky thruster valve that engineers have been monitoring for the past several weeks. The leak creates small trajectory changes on its own. Engineers have factored in these nudges so that MarCO-B can still perform a trajectory correction maneuver. It will take several more weeks of tracking to refine these nudges so that MarCO-B can follow InSight on its cruise through space.

"We're cautiously optimistic that MarCO-B can follow MarCO-A," said Joel Krajewski of JPL, MarCO's project manager. "But we wanted to take more time to understand the underlying issues before attempting the next course-correction maneuver."

Once the MarCO team has analyzed data, they'll know the size of follow-on maneuvers. Several more course corrections will be needed to reach the Red Planet.

Should the CubeSats make it all the way to Mars, they will attempt to relay data to Earth about InSight's landing. InSight won't rely on either CubeSat for that data relay, however; that job will fall to NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

2018-123
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tnt22

ЦитироватьNASA ScienceCasts: New InSight into the Red Planet

ScienceAtNASA

Опубликовано: 21 июн. 2018 г.

We've always referred to Mars as the red planet because of its surface color. But what's below that dusty crust? NASA's InSight mission is determined to find out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lab6gl0FYoQhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lab6gl0FYoQ (3:36)

tnt22

ЦитироватьNASAInSight‏ @NASAInSight 18 ч. назад

Can't go 300 million miles without turning my steering wheel! My team has tweaked my flight path for the second time and I'm well on my way to #Mars. Read more about these tweaks: https://go.nasa.gov/2DDV0K4 


tnt22

ЦитироватьNASAInSight‏ @NASAInSight 2 ч. назад

I'm HALFWAY to #Mars! I'm traveling at a speed of ~6,200 mph. My total trip is ~300 million miles. I'll land on Mars Nov. 26, 2018. Learn more about my trip: http://go.nasa.gov/2DDV0K4 

tnt22

ЦитироватьJeff Foust‏ @jeff_foust 37 мин. назад

Anne Marinan, JPL: MarCO-A cubesat recently performed second trajectory correction maneuver en route to Mars, and MarCO-B will perform second TCM in the next week.
#smallsat

36 мин. назад

Marinan: both spacecraft are performing well. MarCO-B has a small propellant leak due to an unseated valve, but able to mitigate its effects.
#smallsat

34 мин. назад

Marinan: focus now is on prime mission to relay entry, descent and landing data from the Insight lander in November, but may consider an extended mission afterwards to collect more engineering data.
#smallsat

tnt22

ЦитироватьNASAInSight‏ @NASAInSight 4 ч. назад

In days, I'm scheduled to land on #Mars. My touchdown is set for November 26, making the days around the Thanksgiving holiday extra memorable this year. No other mission has done what I'll be doing. Learn how I'll study Mars' deep interior: http://go.nasa.gov/2EaR844 

tnt22

ЦитироватьNASA Mars Report: August 20, 2018

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Опубликовано: 20 авг. 2018 г.

What's the latest news from Mars? A global dust storm is starting to settle, but still obscures the Martian surface; the Curiosity rover turns six and drills a new rock sample; the InSight lander is more than halfway to Mars and has tested its instruments and cameras. For more about all of NASA's Mars missions, visit https://mars.nasa.gov .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJtjJSHsm9chttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJtjJSHsm9c (1:27)

tnt22

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/nasas-insight-passes-halfway-to-mars-instruments-check-in
ЦитироватьAug. 20, 2018

NASA's InSight Passes Halfway to Mars, Instruments Check In

NASA's InSight spacecraft, en route to a Nov. 26 landing on Mars, passed the halfway mark on Aug. 6. All of its instruments have been tested and are working well.

As of Aug. 20, the spacecraft had covered 172 million miles (277 million kilometers) since its launch 107 days ago. In another 98 days, it will travel another 129 million miles (208 million kilometers) and touch down in Mars' Elysium Planitia region, where it will be the first mission to study the Red Planet's deep interior. InSight stands for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport.
Спойлер
https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLTiv_XWHnOZpDDRIMGNxDTAORJVK2RS7I&time_continue=1&v=IJtjJSHsm9c(video 1:27)
What's the latest news from Mars? A global dust storm is starting to settle, but still obscures the Martian surface; the Curiosity rover turns six and drills a new rock sample; the InSight lander is more than halfway to Mars and has tested its instruments and cameras.

The InSight team is using the time before the spacecraft's arrival at Mars to not only plan and practice for that critical day, but also to activate and check spacecraft subsystems vital to cruise, landing and surface operations, including the highly sensitive science instruments.

InSight's seismometer, which will be used to detect quakes on Mars, received a clean bill of health on July 19. The SEIS instrument (Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure) is a six-sensor seismometer combining two types of sensors to measure ground motions over a wide range of frequencies. It will give scientists a window into Mars' internal activity.


This long-exposure image (24 seconds) was taken by Instrument Context Camera (ICC) of NASA's InSight Mars lander. The image shows some of the interior features of the backshell that encapsulates the spacecraft. The backshell carries the parachute and several components used during later stages of entry, descent, and landing. Along with the heatshield, the backshell protects NASA's InSight Mars lander during its commute to and entry into the Martian atmosphere.
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Full image and caption

"We did our final performance checks on July 19, which were successful," said Bruce Banerdt, principal investigator of InSight from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California.

The team also checked an instrument that will measure the amount of heat escaping from Mars. After being placed on the surface, InSight's Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3) instrument will use a self-hammering mechanical mole burrowing to a depth of 10 to 16 feet (3 to 5 meters). Measurements by sensors on the mole and on a science tether from the mole to the surface will yield the first precise determination of the amount of heat escaping from the planet's interior. The checkout consisted of powering on the main electronics for the instrument, performing checks of its instrument sensor elements, exercising some of the instrument's internal heaters, and reading out the stored settings in the electronics module. 

The third of InSight's three main investigations -- Rotation and Interior Structure Experiment (RISE) -- uses the spacecraft's radio connection with Earth to assess perturbations of Mars' rotation axis. These measurements can provide information about the planet's core.


This artist's concept shows the InSight spacecraft, encapsulated in its aeroshell, as it cruises to Mars.
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Full image and caption

"We have been using the spacecraft's radio since launch day, and our conversations with InSight have been very cordial, so we are good to go with RISE as well," said Banerdt.

The lander's cameras checked out fine as well, taking a spacecraft selfie of the inside of the spacecraft's backshell. InSight Project Manager Tom Hoffman from JPL said that, "If you are an engineer on InSight, that first glimpse of the heat shield blanket, harness tie-downs and cover bolts is a very reassuring sight as it tells us our Instrument Context Camera is operating perfectly. The next picture we plan to take with this camera will be of the surface of Mars."

If all goes as planned, the camera will take the first image of Elysium Planitia minutes after InSight touches down on Mars.

JPL manages InSight for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. InSight is part of NASA's Discovery Program, managed by the agency's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The InSight spacecraft, including cruise stage and lander, was built and tested by Lockheed Martin Space in Denver.

A number of European partners, including France's Centre National d'Études Spatiales (CNES) and the German Aerospace Center (DLR), are supporting the InSight mission. CNES provided the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS) instrument, with significant contributions from the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS) in Germany, the Swiss Institute of Technology (ETH) in Switzerland, Imperial College and Oxford University in the United Kingdom, and JPL. DLR provided the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3) instrument.
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2018-193

Last Updated: Aug. 20, 2018
Editor: Tony Greicius

tnt22

ЦитироватьInside InSight - Swiss-Italian Scientist Studies Earthquakes and Marsquakes

NASA 360

Опубликовано: 2 авг. 2018 г.

ETH Zurich professor Domenico Giardini spent his career studying earthquakes — once NASA InSight lands, he will get to study marsquakes. An Italian living in Switzerland, Domenico works with NASA's international partners to provide electronics for the lander's seismometer. Landing in November 2018, NASA's InSight will probe beneath the surface of Mars, study the planet's interior and shed light on how rocky planets — inside and outside our solar system — form.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsHNgMZQ8P8https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsHNgMZQ8P8 (1:00)

tnt22

ЦитироватьInside InSight - Ghanaian Engineer Works on Robotic Arms for Mars

NASA 360

Опубликовано: 2 авг. 2018 г.

NASA-JPL InSight engineer Ashitey Trebi-Ollennu builds robotic components for planetary exploration, a dream that began as a young child in Ghana.

Landing in November 2018, NASA's InSight will probe beneath the surface of Mars, study the planet's interior and shed light on how rocky planets — inside and outside our solar system — form.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQLalCxXQLkhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQLalCxXQLk (1:00)

tnt22

ЦитироватьMars in a Minute: How Did Mars Get Such Enormous Mountains?

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Опубликовано: 28 авг. 2018 г.

Why are the tallest peaks in the solar system found on one of its smallest worlds? Like any planet, how Mars looks outside is tied to what goes on inside. Dig into planetary formation in this 60-second video and by visiting mars.nasa.gov/insight .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cww3yVQpcjYhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cww3yVQpcjY (1:00)

tnt22

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/nasas-insight-has-a-thermometer-for-mars
ЦитироватьAug. 29, 2018

NASA's InSight Has a Thermometer for Mars

The Red Planet has some of the tallest mountains in the solar system. They include Olympus Mons, a volcano nearly three times the height of Everest. It borders a region called the Tharsis plateau, where three equally awe-inspiring volcanoes dominate the landscape.

But what geologic processes created these features on the Martian surface? Scientists have long wondered -- and may soon know more.

NASA and DLR (German Aerospace Center) plan to take the planet's temperature for the first time ever, measuring how heat flows out of the planet and drives this inspiring geology. Detecting this escaping heat will be a crucial part of a mission called InSight (Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport), managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

InSight will be the first mission to study Mars' deep interior, using its Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3) instrument to measure heat as it is conducted fr om the interior to the planet's surface. This energy was in part captured when Mars formed more than 4 billion years ago, preserving a record of its creation. That energy is also due to the decay of radioactive elements in the rocky interior.

The way heat moves through a planet's mantle and crust determines what surface features it will have, said Sue Smrekar of JPL, the mission's deputy principal investigator and the deputy lead for HP3.
Спойлер
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cww3yVQpcjY
(video 1:00)
Ambitious climbers, forget Mt. Everest. Dream about Mars.

"Most of the planet's geology is a result of heat," Smrekar said. "Volcanic eruptions in the ancient past were driven by the flow of this heat, pushing up and constructing the towering mountains Mars is famous for."

A mole for Mars

While scientists have modeled the interior structure of Mars, InSight will provide the first opportunity to find ground truth -- by literally looking below the ground.

HP3, built and operated by DLR, will be placed on the Martian surface after InSight lands on Nov. 26, 2018. A probe called a mole will pummel the ground, burying itself and dragging a tether behind it. Temperature sensors embedded in this tether will measure the natural internal heat of Mars.

That's no easy task. The mole has to burrow deep enough to escape the wide temperature swings of the Martian surface. Even the spacecraft's own "body heat" could affect HP3's super-sensitive readings.

"If the mole gets stuck higher up than expected, we can still measure the temperature variation," said HP3 investigation lead Tilman Spohn of DLR. "Our data will have more noise, but we can subtract out daily and seasonal weather variations by comparing it with ground-temperature measurements."

In addition to burrowing, the mole will give off heat pulses. Scientists will study how quickly the mole warms the surrounding rock, allowing them to figure out how well heat is conducted by the rock grains at the landing site. Densely packed grains conduct heat better -- an important piece of the equation for determining Mars' internal energy.

Cooking up a new planet

For an example of planetary heat flow, imagine a pot of water on a stove.

As water heats, it expands, becomes less dense, and rises. The cooler, denser water sinks to the bottom, wh ere it heats up. This cycling of cool to hot is called convection. The same thing happens inside a planet, churning rock over millions of years.

Just as expanding bubbles can push off a pot lid, volcanoes are lids being blown off the top of a world. They shape a planet's surface in the process. Most of the atmosphere on rocky planets forms as volcanoes expel gas from deep below. Some of Mars' biggest dry river beds are believed to have formed when the Tharsis volcanoes spewed gas into the atmosphere. That gas contained water vapor, which cooled into liquid and may have formed the channels surrounding Tharsis.

The smaller the planet, the faster it loses its original heat. Since Mars is only one-third the size of Earth, most of its heat was lost early in its history. Most Martian geologic activity, including volcanism, occurred in the planet's first billion years.

"We want to know what drove the early volcanism and climate change on Mars," Spohn said. "How much heat did Mars start with? How much was left to drive its volcanism?"

NASA's orbiters have given scientists a "macro" view of the planet, allowing them to study Martian geology from above. HP3 will offer a first look at the inside of Mars.

"Planets are kind of like an engine, driven by heat that moves their internal parts around," Smrekar said. "With HP3, we'll be lifting the hood on Mars' engine for the first time."

What scientists learn during the InSight mission won't just apply to Mars. It will teach them how all rocky planets formed -- including Earth, its Moon and even planets in other solar systems.
...
JPL, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages InSight for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. InSight is part of NASA's Discovery Program, managed by the agency's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The InSight spacecraft, including cruise stage and lander, was built and tested by Lockheed Martin Space in Denver.

Andrew Good
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-393-2433
andrew.c.good@jpl.nasa.gov
[свернуть]
2018-205

Last Updated: Aug. 30, 2018
Editor: Tony Greicius

tnt22

https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/news/2018/marco-makes-space-for-small-explorers
ЦитироватьSEPTEMBER 13, 2018
MarCO Makes Space for Small Explorers



MARCO BEING TESTED IN SUNLIGHT
Engineer Joel Steinkraus uses sunlight to test the solar arrays on one of the Mars Cube One (MarCO) spacecraft at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Twenty years ago, CubeSats -- a class of boxy satellites small enough to fit in a backpack -- were used by universities as a teaching aid. Simpler, smaller and cheaper than traditional satellites, they've made space more accessible to private companies and science agencies.

This summer, NASA has been flying the first two next-generation CubeSats to deep space. They're currently on their way to Mars, trailing thousands of miles behind the InSight spacecraft. InSight and its CubeSat tag-alongs are already more than halfway to the Red Planet.

The mini-mission, called Mars Cube One (MarCO), has already proved this class of spacecraft can survive the deep-space environment. It will next test the use of miniaturized communication technology to relay data when InSight attempts to land in November. Relaying landing data is one of the jobs of NASA's orbiters, which will record InSight's descent; engineers learn more from every landing attempt. MarCO will test whether this technology can ably perform the relay job for future missions.
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MARS CUBE ONE IN DETAIL
Illustration of one of the twin MarCO spacecraft with some key components labeled. Front cover is left out to show some internal components. Antennas and solar arrays are in deployed configuration. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

To complete their mission, the MarCOs have miniature high-gain antennas and radios that can communicate with Earth from roughly 93 million miles away. Their propulsion systems are capable of steering towards Mars; each MarCO completed its second steering maneuver in August. They even have color cameras, one of which snapped the first image of Earth and the Moon -- proof of just how far this technology has literally come.

MarCO is still experimental. It's meant to demonstrate that spacecraft technology can be shrunk into a tiny package and still do something useful in deep space. And while CubeSats will never compete with the larger and more complex spacecraft NASA usually flies, the MarCO spacecraft are pioneering a new class of robotic exploration.

"Our hope is that MarCO could help democratize deep space," said Jakob Van Zyl, director of the Solar System Exploration Directorate at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. "The technology is cheap enough that you could envision countries entering space that weren't players in the past. Even universities could do this."

A Legacy of Pathfinders

JPL initiated and built MarCO, just one of several CubeSat projects the Lab has developed. JPL is a natural place to host CubeSats: The Lab built the first U.S. satellite, Explorer 1, which discovered the Van Allen radiation belts in 1958. Not unlike a CubeSat, it was a small, rudimentary spacecraft. The history of the U.S. space program followed in its wake.

JPL later built a Mars mini-rover called Sojourner that took baby steps in 1997 and proved to be a trial run for NASA's Spirit, Opportunity and Curiosity rovers.

Innovation often begins with pathfinder technology, Van Zyl said. Once engineers prove something can be done, science missions follow.

"When it comes to innovation, MarCO is in the same class as Explorer 1 and Sojourner," Van Zyl said. "The question is: Can we use CubeSats to do more science? Not all science, because they're too limited to carry many instruments. But this technology creates a vehicle for people to do science at a much lower investment to the taxpayer."

NASA has already committed to answering the question. Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of the agency's Science Mission Directorate, is a proponent of CubeSats; last month, he announced NASA will be funding $100 million worth of SmallSat science missions each year.

Preparing for Future CubeSats

MarCO has already laid the groundwork for future exploration with small spacecraft.

"Almost all the features of MarCO are being adapted for use on future spacecraft," said John Baker, the program manager responsible for small spacecraft at JPL. "And many parts started with a commercial partner's product that was modified."

The role of MarCO's commercial partners can't be understated. Its solar panels, cameras, avionics, propulsion systems and attitude control systems were all provided by commercial contractors. One advantage of CubeSats is they can use standardized parts and systems, allowing private companies to lower the price of new technology. Lower-cost spacecraft also mean engineers can take more design risks, testing that technology in space.

Van Zyl said that MarCO's main goal was to prove CubeSats can survive the harsh journey to another planet. MarCO's team can check that box off their list.

They're already focused on their next goal: Mars is just a few months and 68 million miles (110 million kilometers) away.
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tnt22

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More: http://go.nasa.gov/2DEAjOl 


Pirat5

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tnt22

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NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

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tnt22

https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/jpl/nasas-first-image-of-mars-from-a-cubesat
ЦитироватьOct. 22, 2018

NASA's First Image of Mars from a CubeSat



NASA's MarCO mission was designed to find out if briefcase-sized spacecraft called CubeSats could survive the journey to deep space. Now, MarCO – which stands for Mars Cube One – has Mars in sight.

One of the twin MarCO CubeSats snapped this image of Mars on Oct. 3 – the first image of the Red Planet ever produced by this class of tiny, low-cost spacecraft. The two CubeSats are officially called MarCO-A and MarCO-B but nicknamed "EVE" and "Wall-E" by their engineering team.

A wide-angle camera on top of MarCO-B produced the image as a test of exposure settings. The MarCO mission, led by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, hopes to produce more images as the CubeSats approach Mars ahead of Nov. 26. That's when they'll demonstrate their communications capabilities while NASA's InSight spacecraft attempts to land on the Red Planet. (The InSight mission won't rely on them, however; NASA's Mars orbiters will be relaying the spacecraft's data back to Earth.)

This image was taken from a distance of roughly 8 million miles (12.8 million kilometers) from Mars. The MarCOs are "chasing" Mars, which is a moving target as it orbits the Sun. In order to be in place for InSight's landing, the CubeSats have to travel roughly 53 million miles (85 million kilometers). They have already traveled 248 million miles (399 million kilometers).
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One of NASA's twin MarCO spacecraft took this image of Mars on October 2 -- the first time a CubeSat, a kind of low-cost, briefcase-sized spacecraft -- has done so.
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

MarCO-B's wide-angle camera looks straight out from the deck of the CubeSat. Parts related to the spacecraft's high-gain antenna are visible on either side of the image. Mars appears as a small red dot at the right of the image.

To take the image, the MarCO team had to program the CubeSat to rotate in space so that the deck of its boxy "body" was pointing at Mars. After several test images, they were excited to see that clear, red pinprick.

"We've been waiting six months to get to Mars," said Cody Colley, MarCO's mission manager at JPL. "The cruise phase of the mission is always difficult, so you take all the small wins when they come. Finally seeing the planet is definitely a big win for the team."
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Last Updated: Oct. 22, 2018
Editor: Jon Nelson