NASA’s Mars Insight probe died a slow, dusty death last week. For months, the robot, designed to study tectonic activity on the Red Planet, ran at decreasing power as the 4.2-square-meter solar array gradually disappeared under a thick blanket of dust. On Wednesday (Dec. 21), NASA announced it had not heard from the investigation for days, officially declaring the mission dead.
prospectEach I landed in the Elysium Planitia aquarium which looked flat and unattractiveSouth MarsThe Equator in November 2018 exceeded the planned duration of the mission by two years. However, many wonder if anything can be done to save the perfectly intact humanoid robot, which provides a scientific breakthrough The inner life of Mars.
Related: NASA’s Mars Insight lander ends its mission after losing power
Costs versus benefits
in a Twitter topic (Opens in a new tab)Published about six weeks before InSight finally dies, NASA outlines the tradeoffs engineers faced when designing missions to the notoriously dusty Mars.
NASA wrote on the aircraft’s Twitter account: “People often ask: Don’t I have a way to remove dust from myself (broom, leaf blower, etc.)? It’s a legitimate question, and the short answer is this.” . “Such a system would add cost, mass and complexity. The easiest and cheapest way to achieve my goal was to bring in solar arrays large enough to accomplish the entire mission, which they (and later some!) did. .”
Dust storm season
When sending landers to Mars, space agencies usually try to avoid the planet Dust storm season, which occurs during the northern Martian autumn and winter period. Given that a year on Mars lasts about two years Land Over the years, most modern landers and rovers, including InSight, have weathered several seasons of dust storms. That Curiosity wanders, which is now entering its 11th year on Mars and is still going strong, has had several dust storm seasons. Explorers too Take your measurements (Opens in a new tab) on changes in the amount of dust that accumulates on sensors and their surfaces, revealing how monsoons and dust devils help rovers stay operational longer. As it turns out, InSight is a bit out of luck when it comes to Mars’ natural cleansing aids.
No Dust Devil Car Wash
Dust devils have been spotted dusting off NASA’s older generation of Mars rovers, Roh (Opens in a new tab) AND chance. Opportunity, in particular, has successfully continued its mission for more than 14 years, exceeding its three-month duration by dozens of times. Comb the dust devils regularly Wind-triggered cleanup events played a vital role in this record-breaking task. Finally AJ The big dust storm of 2019 finally defeated the little roverconcluded his record-breaking expedition.
According to Mike Williams, chief engineer of Airbus Defense and Space, which is currently rethinking its approach to dust defense European ExoMars vehicle Rosalind Franklinit seems that InSight is in a “terrible disadvantage to dust off”.
Tilt solar panels
Williams agrees that NASA’s approach to massive solar panels is the best, safest, and cheapest when it comes to a dust-tight spacecraft for Mars exploration. However, Airbus is currently looking to add a dedicated dust defense capability and has plenty of time to do so. The mission, created in cooperation with Russia, was suspended after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. A launch scheduled for September has been canceled and Airbus is now maintaining the ExoMars rover in a clean room where several major components, originally manufactured by Russia, need to be replaced.
“Scaling the arrays to be able to handle less sunlight reaching them due to dust is the best and simplest solution,” Williams told Space.com. “This is the lowest level of complexity. It requires the fewest subsystems and functions and is therefore the least risky. From a mission design standpoint, this is definitely the best way to go about it.
When the ExoMars mission was first conceived, Williams said, engineers had many dust-cleaning technologies in mind, including brushes, wipers, gas blowers, and electrostatic wipers to remove dust. At the time, they determined that the rover, whose nominal mission to Oxia Planum was designed to last just 180 Martian days, or Mars, wouldn’t need to clean up. With the new launch date now expected to be no earlier than 2028, they are rethinking their approach again.
“With the birth of ExoMars, we wanted to bring back some of those capabilities,” Williams said. “We can use something like tilting a solar panel to get some of that dust out. This would also help point the panels more efficiently at the sun, which could also have some benefits.”
Williams added that Airbus engineers, as well as NASA, will have to accept that ExoMars, like other rovers on Mars, will eventually succumb to the dust and they won’t be disappointed if the rover lasts a little longer than its designed mission. Even if they expect help from the Mars climate like Spirit and Opportunity.
“Unfortunately, that’s the way it is with space missions,” Williams said.
InSight’s attempt to clean itself up
While InSight wasn’t designed to dust itself off, NASA recently made several attempts to help the spacecraft dust itself off in its final months of life due to the reduced amount of electricity its panels generate.
In May, ground controllers ordered InSight’s robotic arm to sprinkle a small amount of sand on one of the lander’s panels which was covered in dust. As the wind blows grains of sand across the slab, it actually collects dust along the way, thinning the dust cap that blocks sunlight.
The process allows the spacecraft to get about 30 watt-hours of energy for each day that passes at that time, according to NASA. declaration (Opens in a new tab).
In the end, nature won. as usual. And InSight certainly isn’t going down without a fight.
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