Geology of the InSight landing site on Mars.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Golombek M
PROVIDER: S-EPMC7039939 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:Knowing precisely where a spacecraft lands on Mars is important for understanding the regional and local context, setting, and the offset between the inertial and cartographic frames. For the InSight spacecraft, the payload of geophysical and environmental sensors also particularly benefits from knowing exactly where the instruments are located. A ~30 cm/pixel image acquired from orbit after landing clearly resolves the lander and the large circular solar panels. This image was carefully georeferenced to a hierarchically generated and coregistered set of decreasing resolution orthoimages and digital elevation models to the established positive east, planetocentric coordinate system. The lander is located at 4.502384°N, 135.623447°E at an elevation of -2,613.426 m with respect to the geoid in Elysium Planitia. Instrument locations (and the magnetometer orientation) are derived by transforming from Instrument Deployment Arm, spacecraft mechanical, and site frames into the cartographic frame. A viewshed created from 1.5 m above the lander and the high-resolution orbital digital elevation model shows the lander is on a shallow regional slope down to the east that reveals crater rims on the east horizon ~400 m and 2.4 km away. A slope up to the north limits the horizon to about 50 m away where three rocks and an eolian bedform are visible on the rim of a degraded crater rim. Azimuths to rocks and craters identified in both surface panoramas and high-resolution orbital images reveal that north in the site frame and the cartographic frame are the same (within 1°).
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Project description:Interior exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport's (InSight) seismometer package Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS) was placed on the surface of Mars at about 1.2 m distance from the thermal properties instrument Heat flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3) that includes a self-hammering probe. Recording the hammering noise with SEIS provided a unique opportunity to estimate the seismic wave velocities of the shallow regolith at the landing site. However, the value of studying the seismic signals of the hammering was only realized after critical hardware decisions were already taken. Furthermore, the design and nominal operation of both SEIS and HP3 are nonideal for such high-resolution seismic measurements. Therefore, a series of adaptations had to be implemented to operate the self-hammering probe as a controlled seismic source and SEIS as a high-frequency seismic receiver including the design of a high-precision timing and an innovative high-frequency sampling workflow. By interpreting the first-arriving seismic waves as a P-wave and identifying first-arriving S-waves by polarization analysis, we determined effective P- and S-wave velocities of vP=119-21+45 m/s and vS=63-7+11 m/s, respectively, from around 2,000 hammer stroke recordings. These velocities likely represent bulk estimates for the uppermost several 10s of cm of regolith. An analysis of the P-wave incidence angles provided an independent v P /v S ratio estimate of 1.84-0.35+0.89 that compares well with the traveltime based estimate of 1.86-0.25+0.42 . The low seismic velocities are consistent with those observed for low-density unconsolidated sands and are in agreement with estimates obtained by other methods.
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Project description:Orbital and surface observations can shed light on the internal structure of Mars. NASA's InSight mission allows mapping the shallow subsurface of Elysium Planitia using seismic data. In this work, we apply a classical seismological technique of inverting Rayleigh wave ellipticity curves extracted from ambient seismic vibrations to resolve, for the first time on Mars, the shallow subsurface to around 200 m depth. While our seismic velocity model is largely consistent with the expected layered subsurface consisting of a thin regolith layer above stacks of lava flows, we find a seismic low-velocity zone at about 30 to 75 m depth that we interpret as a sedimentary layer sandwiched somewhere within the underlying Hesperian and Amazonian aged basalt layers. A prominent amplitude peak observed in the seismic data at 2.4 Hz is interpreted as an Airy phase related to surface wave energy trapped in this local low-velocity channel.
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Project description:Comprehensive analysis of remote sensing data used to select the Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) landing site correctly predicted the atmospheric temperature and pressure profile during entry and descent, the safe landing surface, and the geologic setting of the site. The smooth plains upon which the InSight landing site is located were accurately predicted to be generally similar to the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit landing site with relatively low rock abundance, low slopes, and a moderately dusty surface with a 3-10 m impact fragmented regolith over Hesperian to Early Amazonian basaltic lava flows. The deceleration profile and surface pressure encountered by the spacecraft during entry, descent, and landing compared well (within 1σ) of the envelope of modeled temperature profiles and the expected surface pressure. Orbital estimates of thermal inertia are similar to surface radiometer measurements, and materials at the surface are dominated by poorly consolidated sand as expected. Thin coatings of bright atmospheric dust on the surface were as indicated by orbital albedo and dust cover index measurements. Orbital estimates of rock abundance from shadow measurements in high-resolution images and thermal differencing indicated very low rock abundance and surface counts show 1-4% area covered by rocks. Slopes at 100 to 5 m length scale measured from orbital topographic and radar data correctly indicated a surface comparably smooth and flat as the two smoothest landing sites (Opportunity and Phoenix). Thermal inertia and radar data indicated the surface would be load bearing as found.
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Project description:In the last few years, water ice and salts capable of melting this ice and producing liquid saline water (brine) have been detected on Mars. Moreover, indirect evidence for brine has been found in multiple areas of the planet. Here, we simulate full diurnal cycles of temperature and atmospheric water vapor content at the Phoenix landing site for the first time and show experimentally that, in spite of the low Mars-like chamber temperature, brine forms minutes after the ground temperature exceeds the eutectic temperature of salts in contact with water ice. Moreover, we show that the brine stays liquid for most of the diurnal cycle when enough water ice is available to compensate for evaporation. This is predicted to occur seasonally in areas of the polar region where the temperature exceeds the eutectic value and frost or snow is deposited on saline soils, or where water ice and salts coexist in the shallow subsurface. This is important because the existence of liquid water is a key requirement for habitability. Key Words: Mars-Ice-Perchlorates-Brine-Water-Raman spectroscopy. Astrobiology 16, 937-948.
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