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DLR Executive Board Chair Anke Kaysser-Pyzalla in the control room during the commanding test
DLR Executive Board Chair Anke Kaysser-Pyzalla was a guest at the German Space Operations Center on 22 July 2021 and observed the EGS-CC satellite test live at the console. In the image: Anke Kaysser-Pyzalla and Christian Stangl of DLR Space Operations and Astronaut Training. -
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The mineral olivine
Olivine is a green iron-magnesium silicate that occurs very frequently in Earth’s upper mantle and in volcanic melts with a low proportion of silicon. Earth’s entire ocean floor consists of solidified lavas with a high proportion of olivine minerals, as do volcanic regions such as the Eifel, Hawaii or Mount Etna. The example of the typical green olivine minerals on a basalt stone shown here comes from the volcano Mount Erebus in Antarctica. Only at a depth of about 700 kilometres does the pressure in Earth's mantle become so high that olivine changes into perovskite-group minerals, in which the same atoms are ‘pressed’ into a denser crystal lattice. The latest research results derived from quake waves now show that the mantle of Mars, which is just over 1500 kilometres thick, is more like the upper, olivine-rich mantle of Earth than the lower mantle. -
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Traces of marsquakes from the past
Traces of tectonic stresses and marsquakes are omnipresent on our planetary neighbour. Patterns of almost linear and parallel fracture structures caused by the stretching of the brittle crust and the resulting fractures are very common, particularly in the southern highlands, which are more than three billion years old. The stretching creates additional space perpendicular to the direction of the acting tectonic force, into which entire blocks of crust sag and crustal segments remain between these sagged blocks, creating a characteristic landscape pattern known in geological terminology worldwide by the German terms ‘Horst and Graben’. Such major structural changes are always accompanied by strong quakes. Examples on Earth are the East African Rift Valley or the Upper Rhine Graben. -
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Cross-section of the SEIS seismometer
SEIS is a seismometer for measuring movements in the Martian soil at different frequencies. It contains six seismic and other auxiliary sensors. The instrument was developed and built by the French space agency (CNES) with the participation of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Göttingen. At the heart of the SEIS experiment are three pendulums that react to even the smallest movements in the Martian surface. The motion of the pendulums is recorded electronically. Because materials expand as they warm and contract when they cool, SEIS is equipped with a sophisticated thermal system in the form of several insulation shells, comparable to the 'onion-skin principle' in modern outdoor clothing. The shells reduce the temperature fluctuations at the sensors so that measuring conditions always remain stable inside the instrument. The outermost white dome serves specifically to protect against the wind; a flexible system resembling a window blind ensures a tight seal at the bottom. -
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The SEIS marsquake station
A camera on the deck of the InSight platform filmed a ‘flip-book’ time lapse of the weather over a Martian day. In the centre of the image, the seismometer can be seen under its windshield. The instrument is so sensitive that it can measure the tiny vibrations of the Martian soil generated by the wind, dust devils and the slight movements of the tether used to transfer data. To reduce this noise in the data, the scoop of the robot arm will now be used to cover the tether with sand to better fix it in place.
