Watch InSight's successful landing on Mars: Difference between revisions
Watch InSight's successful landing on Mars (edit)
Revision as of 03:08, 27 November 2018
, 5 years ago→Speculation could it detect Curiosity liquid brines
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The self hammering mole releases pulses of heat as it descends and it studies its own self heating curve to estimate the thermal conductivity of the regolith around it. You'd think if it traveled through a thin layer of brine a couple of cms below the surface it might notice a variation in thermal conductivity? See [https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/spacecraft/instruments/hp3/ Heat probe: Taking the temperature of Mars]. Perhaps the liquid brines might leave a distinctive heat signature? See also for technical details: [https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11214-018-0531-4 The Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3) for the InSight Mission]
If Elysia Planitium has salts below the surface that can take up water from the atmosphere it might have similar brines too, and if so, perhaps the mole could notice the brines as a more heat conductive layer just below the surface as it starts to drill? Especially if the conductivity varied and was highest
They will also use the seismometer's recording of the reverberations of the self hammering mole to gain insights into the structure of the regolith - it should be able to detect the interface between rock and regolith that they think should be present and determine the depth of the regolith. It could also detect any strong signals of water rich layers indirectly through changes in the elasticity of the rock. See [https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/52da/80d5730524b9534c00b73505be02280a1655.pdf Analysis of regolith properties using seismic signals generated by InSight’s HP3 penetrator (pdf)]
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