Mars InSight Detects Marsquakes

InSight finally detects seismic activity on Mars

NASA’s InSight Mars lander is a stationary probe designed to study the interior of the Red Planet. Unlike the other rover missions lead by NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), this mission’s lander will remain in one place to conduct its studies.

InSight launched toward Mars in May 5, 2018 from California on an Atlas V vehicle from the United Launch Alliance (ULA). The lander arrived to the Martian surface on November 26 of last year in an ancient volcanic area. Choosing a landing site for a rover or any other robot on Mars is usually very difficult, and geologists study maps of the planet to come up with the most interesting locations. In InSight’s case the selection was much more straightforward as its main goal was to investigate what’s going on deep in its soil rather than on the visible surface. The landing site was chosen because the surface in the area was believed to be soft enough to allow for InSight’s famous probe to dig deep into the Martian soil. The site was also chosen simply because it was plain and safe enough to make a safe approach and increase the chances of a successful landing.

Mars Landing Site _{^{Figure 1: Map of Mars showing the location of famous missions on Mars, and InSight’s relative location to them. InSight has landed on Elysium Planetia, chosen for its flatness and soft soil.}}

So far, the JPL team has encountered some issues with the lander, with the biggest one being an unexpected friend right under the lander. Unfortunately, a large rock has stopped the heat probe from digging too deep into the surface. Since the issue with the heat probe was announced, scientists have shifted their attention to the seismic instrument on the lander, hoping it produces some results.

In a press release on April 6th, the French space agency CNES announced that InSight’s seismic activity instrument has detected 1 Marsquake and maybe 3 additional ones. Just three days ago on April 23 of 2019, JPL published the following video on YouTube. Make sure your sound is one, you’re going to want to hear this!

JPL points out, that the recording was made on April 6th of 2019, the equivalent to the 128th sol of the InSight mission. The video shows that different vibration make up the sounds heard, as recorded by the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS). The distinct vibrations are: noise from the Martian wind, the Marsquakes and the robotic arm that was used to take pictures of the instrument during performance.

For more about the mission, you can check out the links below.