I spy InSight: NASA shares eye-catching images of Insight lander and Curiosity rover on Mars taken from space
- HiRISE camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter sent images to Earth
- Captured aerial shots of InSight and Curosity rovers on Mars
- Highlights the lander’s circular solar panels on either side of the its body
NASA has shared aerial shots of its InSight and Curosity rovers on Mars.
The images were snapped by the HiRISE camera aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) that has been orbiting the Red Planet since March 2006.
Taken on Sept. 23, 2019, at an altitude of 169 miles above the Martian surface, the new image is deemed the ‘best view yet of InSight from space’.
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Taken on Sept. 23, 2019, at an altitude of 169 miles above the Martian surface, the new image is deemed the ‘best view yet of InSight from space’
The HiRISE camera was designed to monitor InSight’s landing site in the Elysium Planitia region Mars and is tasked with looking for changes to the surface, such as dust-devil tracks.
And last month it snapped an eye-catching shot of Insight, which highlights the lander’s two circular solar panels on either side of the lander body, spanning 20 feet from end to end.
The image shows a bright spot on the lower side, which is the the dome-shaped protective cover over the seismometer.
The dark halo surrounding the spacecraft resulted from retrorocket thrusters scouring the surface during landing, while dust devils created the dark streaks that run diagonally across the surface.
HiRISE has also been keeping tabs on NASA’s Curiosity, which is roughly 373 miles from InSight, exploring a region called ‘the clay-bearing unit’
INSIGHT’S THREE KEY INSTRUMENTS
The lander that could reveal how Earth was formed
Three key instruments will allow the InSight lander to ‘take the pulse’ of the red planet:
Seismometer: The InSight lander carries a seismometer, SEIS, that listens to the pulse of Mars.
The seismometer records the waves traveling through the interior structure of a planet.
Studying seismic waves tells us what might be creating the waves.
On Mars, scientists suspect that the culprits may be marsquakes, or meteorites striking the surface.
Heat probe: InSight’s heat flow probe, HP3, burrows deeper than any other scoops, drills or probes on Mars before it.
It will investigate how much heat is still flowing out of Mars.
Radio antennas: Like Earth, Mars wobbles a little as it rotates around its axis.
To study this, two radio antennas, part of the RISE instrument, track the location of the lander very precisely.
This helps scientists test the planet’s reflexes and tells them how the deep interior structure affects the planet’s motion around the Sun.
This image is said to be ‘crisper’ than previous snaps, which is all thanks to chance.
NASA explained that compared to the pictures of InSight from November 2018, in this shot there is less dust in the air, shadows are offset and the lighting was ‘also optimal for avoiding the bright reflections from the lander or its solar panels that have obscured surrounding pixels in other images’.
‘However, bright reflections are unavoidable with the seismometer cover just south of the lander because of its dome shape,’ the American space agency.
HiRISE has also been keeping tabs on NASA’s Curiosity, which is roughly 373 miles from InSight, exploring a region called ‘the clay-bearing unit.’
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, manages the InSight, MRO and Curiosity missions for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. JPL is a division of Caltech. The University of Arizona in Tucson operates HiRISE, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. in Boulder, Colorado. MRO was built by Lockheed Martin Space.
