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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

14.01.21- The Mars 'Mole' has reached the end of its journey

For two years, the Mars 'Mole' has endeavoured to dig ever deeper into the Martian soil. Now its journey has come to an end. Until recently, scientists and engineers at the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) had been working to get the mole to dig to a target depth of five metres. The DLR Mole, which travelled to Mars on board the NASA InSight lander, was designed to measure temperature and heat flow beneath the surface of Mars.

24.02.20- Seismic activity on Mars resembles that found in the Swabian Jura

Mars is a seismically active planet – quakes occur several times a day. Although they are not particularly strong, they are easily measurable during the quiet evening hours. This is one of many results of the evaluation of measurement data from the NASA InSight lander, which has been operating as a geophysical observatory on the surface of Mars since 2019.

06.11.19 - The Mars Mole and the challenging ground of the Red Planet

NASA's InSight mission landed on Mars in November 2018. The German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) is involved in the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3) experiment. In addition to a radiometer for measuring the surface temperature, the core component of the experiment is the Mars 'Mole' – a 40-centimetre-long penetrometer designed to measure the heat flow from the Martian interior at a depth of several metres. In February 2019, the Mole began hammering. It got stuck at first, but with the help of InSight's robotic arm it was able to penetrate almost completely into the Martian surface in October 2019. Without the additional support from the arm's scoop, it then began a sudden retreat which has led to almost half of the Mole protruding from the Martian regolith.

03.10.19 -InSight mission – a fresh attempt for the first ‘Mole’ on Mars

Only five centimetres of the Mars ‘Mole’ are still protruding above the planet’s surface, and it is thought that it could have initially driven itself as much as 35 centimetres into the subsurface. A small crater has formed around the shaft, with the result that the small penetrometer is experiencing insufficient friction against its exterior to be able to move deeper. Initial attempts to fill this ‘Mole hole’ using the arm of the InSight lander and its shovel have failed due to the strength of the surface crust. Researchers from the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) are now making a new attempt. They are planning to press the Mole sideways against the crater wall using the scoop of the robotic arm in order to give it enough traction and friction to burrow deeper into the surface.

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. DLR planetary researchers and engineers are now analysing how this could have happened and looking into what measures could be taken to remedy the situation.