NASA’s InSight Lander Deploys Shield on Marsquake Detecting Seismometer

NASA's InSight lander deployed its Wind and Thermal Shield on Feb. 2, 2019 (Sol 66). The shield covers InSight's seismometer, which was set down onto the Martian surface on Dec. 19. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Ken Kremer -- SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM – 4 February 2019

CAPE CANAVERAL, FL –  NASA’s InSight lander has deployed the protective shield covering the Marsquake detecting seismometer instrument placed onto the Red Planet’s surface in mid-December. 

Since then the science and engineering team has been carefully making adjustments to the positioning of the SEIS seismometer on the surface to optimize its data collection.

The covering is called the ‘Wind and Thermal Shield’ and was placed over SEIS this past weekend on Saturday Feb. 2, 2019 (Sol 66). 

The shield protects the supersensitive SEIS instrument from passing winds and temperature fluctuation which could cause excessive noise and ruin the science data gathering measurements. 

The landers robotic arm was initially maneuvered to deploy SEIS to the surface on Dec. 19. On Saturday, the arm was again put in motion to place the ‘Wind and Thermal Shield’ over SEIS. 

“Now it's reached another milestone by placing a domed shield over the seismometer to help the instrument collect accurate data,” NASA announced in a statement today, Feb 4. 

"The seismometer will give scientists their first look at the deep interior of the Red Planet, helping them understand how it and other rocky planets are formed.”

SEIS leveling and lowering to the surface of the Red Planet. Credit: NASA

SEIS is the first seismometer ever placed on the surface of another planet and will be used to measure seismic waves caused by marsquakes, meteorite strikes and other phenomena on Mars.

This cut-through view of the SEIS seismometer shows the dome-shaped wind and thermal shield (WTS), the remote warm box (RWEB), the levelling platform, and the inside of the evacuated sphere protecting the VBB pendulums (©IPGP/David Ducros).

"Temperature is one of our biggest bugaboos," said InSight Principal Investigator Bruce Banerdt of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, in a statement. JPL leads the InSight mission and built the Wind and Thermal Shield. 

"Think of the shield as putting a cozy over your food on a table. It keeps SEIS from warming up too much during the day or cooling off too much at night. In general, we want to keep the temperature as steady as possible."

Before deploying the shield SEIS has been leveling and lowering itself closer to the ground.

NASA's InSight lander placed its seismometer on Mars on Dec. 19, 2018. This was the first time a spacecraft robotically placed a seismometer onto the surface of another planet.  Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

InSight touched down softly on the Red Planet just two months ago days after Thanksgiving on Nov. 26, 2018 as programmed inside the 81-mile-long (130-kilometer-long) targeted landing ellipse  on the plains of ‘Elysium Planitia.’

SEIS is the first of two deck mounted science instruments that will be deployed to the Red Planet’s surface over the next few months.

The next step is to deploy the heat flow probe, called the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP³), onto the Martian surface. NASA says that could happen as early as next week. 

InSight soft landed on Mars just over two months ago on Nov 26, 2018, following a 7 month, 301 million mile (484 million km) interplanetary journey from Earth. She now starts a 2-year mission to explore the Red Planet’s mysterious deep interior.

This is NASA InSight's first selfie on Mars. It displays the lander's solar panels and deck. On top of the deck are its science instruments, weather sensor booms and UHF antenna. The selfie was taken on Dec. 6, 2018 (Sol 10).  Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

InSight in an international science mission. Loaded aboard are the two primary science instruments provided by European partners from France and Germany: The SEIS seismometer and  HP³ heat flow measuring instrument.

The SEIS seismometer instrument is equipped with a trio of incredibly precise seismometers to detect marsquakes and was provided by the Centre National d'Études Spatiales (CNES) - the French national space agency equivalent to NASA.  

The other instrument measuring heat flow from the Martian interior is provided by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and is named Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP³).  

The HP³ hammering mole will pound about 5 meters (16 feet) deep into Mars pulling the science heat flow cable tether along to make heat flow and temperature measurements.   It will pause multiple times along the way down to make detailed measurements at different depths of heat flow from the planets core. 

Watch for Ken’s continuing onsite coverage of NASA, SpaceX, ULA, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and more space and mission reports direct from the Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida and Wallops Flight Facility, Virginia.

Stay tuned here for Ken's continuing Earth and Planetary science and human spaceflight news: www.kenkremer.com –www.spaceupclose.com – twitter @ken_kremer – email: ken at kenkremer.com

Dr. Kremer is a research scientist, journalist and photographer based in the KSC area.

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