Update on effort to resume drilling of heat probe on InSight
Link here. It appears InSight’s camera cannot see the hammer drill, called “the mole,” that pushes the heat probe down, and to get a look and assess the problem they are going to use InSight’s robot arm to remove the equipment in the way.
The lifting sequence will begin in late June, with the arm grasping the support structure (InSight conducted some test movements recently). Over the course of a week, the arm will lift the structure in three steps, taking images and returning them so that engineers can make sure the mole isn’t being pulled out of the ground while the structure is moved. If removed from the soil, the mole can’t go back in.
They also have a theory as to what has stopped the drilling.
Team members now believe the most likely cause is an unexpected lack of friction in the soil around InSight – something very different from soil seen on other parts of Mars. The mole is designed so that loose soil flows around it, adding friction that works against its recoil, allowing it to dig. Without enough friction, it will bounce in place.
They can’t see it, as designed? It depends on the soil for friction? I am very puzzled at these design decisions.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Link here. It appears InSight’s camera cannot see the hammer drill, called “the mole,” that pushes the heat probe down, and to get a look and assess the problem they are going to use InSight’s robot arm to remove the equipment in the way.
The lifting sequence will begin in late June, with the arm grasping the support structure (InSight conducted some test movements recently). Over the course of a week, the arm will lift the structure in three steps, taking images and returning them so that engineers can make sure the mole isn’t being pulled out of the ground while the structure is moved. If removed from the soil, the mole can’t go back in.
They also have a theory as to what has stopped the drilling.
Team members now believe the most likely cause is an unexpected lack of friction in the soil around InSight – something very different from soil seen on other parts of Mars. The mole is designed so that loose soil flows around it, adding friction that works against its recoil, allowing it to dig. Without enough friction, it will bounce in place.
They can’t see it, as designed? It depends on the soil for friction? I am very puzzled at these design decisions.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
So am I. Good thing that big drill in Armageddon wasn’t designed by these people or we would all have joined the dinosaurs back in the late Clinton administration. :-)
I have always been a bit skeptical of this little thing…. I thought “and if it hits a big pebble?”
It seems it did!
If, and it’s a big “IF” , Exo mars lands and operates as planned on mars, it’s 2 meter drill stands much more chance of returning valuable, and more importantly… Interesting science…
It’s looking for life…. Past or present… But will be looking..
This little mole thing ( should it succeed), will tell us about the temperature gradient in the crust of mars…
Fantastic info for planetary geologists, but nothing to inspire the public….
A NASA mission to out and out look for signs of life on Mars would inspire a new generation who don’t remember the Viking missions… The public don’t remember the Vikings unless they are of a certain age…
But they are very interested in life elsewhere….
Stop following the water…. Start looking for signs of life!
Robert asked: “They can’t see it, as designed? It depends on the soil for friction?”
Although the video shows a full scale model of the support structure that has a transparent tube to hold the probe before deployment, the video also shows that the support structure on Mars is not transparent. I suspect that testing did not present the engineers with many problems, so looking at the probe did not seem to be necessary. Therefore, no transparent tube on the flight unit.
At the 30-second point, the video shows the operation of the hammer within the probe. It works somewhat similarly as we use a hammer on Earth. We slowly raise the head to some height, then swing it down with force on the nail or anvil, where the sudden stop does the intended work, such as driving a nail or forging metal.
Because the hammer is built within the probe (nail), every time the hammer head thrusts downward toward the impact surface, there can be a net upward force on the probe as the center of mass changes rapidly. If the probe were in free space or on a frictionless surface, it would vibrate in place. As it is, it seems that the engineers had counted upon more than just the Martian weight of the probe to keep it from bouncing upward during the hammer head’s downward acceleration.
If a lack of friction turns out to be the cause of the trouble, this gives an interesting data point about Martian soil.