Mars mission InSight

The Mars mission InSight is landed on 26 November 2018. With InSight (Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport), the geophysical properties of Mars will be investigated.

The 'mole' will hammer the Martian surface approximately 10,000 times, inserting a tether with temperature sensors into the planet’s surface to a depth never before reached on the Red Planet.  A radiometer on the instrument will also determine and monitor the surface temperature at the landing site. The DLR researchers will then be able to derive the planetary heat flow from the acquired surface and underground temperature data. The DLR instrument is operated by the Microgravity User Support Center (MUSC) in Cologne.

The „Virtual Control Room“ is a feature on the DLR Website, where you have access to some telemetry data for the Missions InSight coming straight from the control rooms of the Microgravity User Support Center (MUSC).

Source: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The final news about InSight mission

11.04.19 - Tests for the InSight 'Mole' A blue box, a cubic metre of Mars-like sand, a rock, a fully-functional model of the Mars 'Mole' and a seismometer – these are the main components with which the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) is simulating the current situation on Mars. After its first hammering operation on 28 February 2019, the DLR Heat and Physical Properties Package (HP³), the Mars Mole, was only able to drive itself about 30 centimetres into the Martian subsurface. Read more

21.03.19 - InSight mission – Diagnostic run for the 'Mole' on Mars The German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) will command the Mars ‘Mole’ to begin a short new round of hammering at the end of March. The seismometer and the camera will closely monitor the movement of the Mole. The researchers want to analyse in more detail the situation of the self-hammering probe, which has shown no further progress since it reached a depth of approximately 30 centimetres at the beginning of March. Different ideas for releasing the Mole require a more detailed analysis of the situation and at least a few more weeks to test different strategies on Earth. Read more

5.3.19 -InSight mission: the Mars ‘Mole’ takes a break As part of NASA’s InSight mission, the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) developed a penetrometer designed to dig three to five metres below the surface of Mars and measure the heat emanating from the planet’s interior. After the Mars ‘Mole’ began hammering into the ground on Thursday 28 February, the probe, which is part of DLR’s HP3 (Heat and Physical Properties Package) instrument, came about three-quarters of the way out of its housing structure before stopping. Data also suggests that the 'Mole' is at a 15-degree tilt. Read more

1.3.19 - „Good luck ‘Mole’ – DLR’s HP3 experiment starts hammering into the Martian soil On 28 February 2019, the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) ‘Mole’ fully automatically hammered its way into the Martian subsurface for the first time. In a first step, it penetrated to a depth between 18 and 50 centimetres into the Martian soil with 4000 hammer blows over a period of four hours. "On its way into the depths, the mole seems to have hit a stone, tilted about 15 degrees and pushed it aside or passed it," reports Tilman Spohn, Principal Investigator of the HP3 experiment. "The Mole then worked its way up against another stone at an advanced depth until the planned four-hour operating time of the first sequence expired. Tests on Earth showed that the rod-shaped penetrometer is able to push smaller stones to the side, which is very time-consuming. Read more

05.03.19 - InSight mission: the Mars ‘Mole’ takes a break After the Mars ‘Mole’ began hammering into the ground on Thursday 28 February, the probe, which is part of DLR’s HP3 (Heat and Physical Properties Package) instrument, came about three-quarters of the way out of its housing structure before stopping. Data also suggests that the 'Mole' is at a 15-degree tilt. Read more

13.02.19 - InSight mission – DLR 'Mole' deployed on surface of Mars

21.12.18 - Exploration of the interior of Mars begins

26.11.2018 - Mars mole HP3 arrives at the Red Planet

26.11.2018 - Mission InSight - Video: flight over InSight's landing site on Elysium Planitia

19.11.18 - DLR's HP3 Mole on board NASA's InSight mission soon to land on Mars

05.05.2018 - NASA InSight probe launched with DLR experiment on board

03.05.2018 - Weltweit erstmals wird sich DLR-Experiment vollautomatisch fünf Meter tief in den Marsboden graben

02.03.2018 - DLR 'Mole' HP³ and its spacecraft transported to their launch site

09.12.16 - 3D simulation as a helping hand for the Martian mole

02.09.16 - Green light for InSight and Mars 'mole'

09.03.16 - InSight mission's journey to Mars set for 2018

Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3)