WEBVTT - InSight into Mars 0:00:04.120 --> 0:00:07.120 Get in touch with technology with tech Stuff from how 0:00:07.200 --> 0:00:13.600 stuff works dot com. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. 0:00:13.640 --> 0:00:16.640 I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with 0:00:16.720 --> 0:00:18.880 House to Parks and I heart radio and I love 0:00:18.960 --> 0:00:24.560 all things tech. And On November two, eighteen, after traveling 0:00:24.600 --> 0:00:28.440 four hundred fifty eight million kilometers or three hundred million 0:00:28.520 --> 0:00:32.600 miles on a trip that lasted nearly seven months, the 0:00:32.720 --> 0:00:37.280 robot platform Insight touched down on the surface of Mars. 0:00:37.680 --> 0:00:40.840 They marked the eighth time the United States has managed 0:00:40.880 --> 0:00:43.880 to land a mission on Mars successfully. So we're gonna 0:00:43.880 --> 0:00:46.320 take a look at this lander, what it does, and 0:00:46.360 --> 0:00:51.440 what it's mission parameters are. Before I get into Insights specifically, 0:00:52.000 --> 0:00:54.400 it's a good time to chat about the logistics of 0:00:54.480 --> 0:00:57.440 just getting to Mars in general. You may have heard 0:00:57.680 --> 0:00:59.800 that if we were to send people to Mars, they 0:01:00.080 --> 0:01:02.400 need to stay there for about two years before they 0:01:02.400 --> 0:01:05.640 could return. So why is that, Well, it's because of 0:01:05.680 --> 0:01:09.800 the respective orbits of Earth and Mars. Mars is further 0:01:09.880 --> 0:01:12.000 out from the Sun than the Earth is, and a 0:01:12.080 --> 0:01:16.200 Martian year lasts six hundred eighty seven Earth days or 0:01:16.319 --> 0:01:20.800 six hundred sixty nine souls or Martian days compared to 0:01:20.800 --> 0:01:23.200 an Earth year, which has of course three hundred sixty 0:01:23.200 --> 0:01:25.920 five days, unless it's a leap year. So there are 0:01:26.040 --> 0:01:29.720 times when Earth and Mars are relatively close, and by 0:01:29.800 --> 0:01:33.360 relatively I mean nearly thirty five million miles or fifty 0:01:33.400 --> 0:01:36.759 six million kilometers apart, and there are other times when 0:01:36.800 --> 0:01:39.520 they are opposite each other with the Sun in the center, 0:01:39.560 --> 0:01:41.640 they're bout as far apart as they possibly can be. 0:01:42.520 --> 0:01:46.440 Space travel is expensive and it requires a lot of fuel. 0:01:47.040 --> 0:01:50.880 Fuel ways a lot, and the heavier year spacecraft gets, 0:01:50.920 --> 0:01:53.160 the more fuel you need, so you end up in 0:01:53.160 --> 0:01:55.840 this sort of cycle up to a point where you 0:01:55.880 --> 0:01:58.200 have to keep adding fuel to lift not just the 0:01:58.200 --> 0:02:00.920 spacecraft but the fuel you are already have in it. 0:02:01.160 --> 0:02:04.880 So that means you get to be super careful with 0:02:04.920 --> 0:02:08.040 how heavy your spacecraft is so that you can be 0:02:08.639 --> 0:02:11.160 very efficient with the amount of fuel you're going to 0:02:11.200 --> 0:02:14.400 need to get to your destination. So that includes playing 0:02:14.400 --> 0:02:17.800 your trips so that you travel the shortest possible distance 0:02:17.960 --> 0:02:20.920 between two points, taking the least amount of time to 0:02:20.960 --> 0:02:23.440 get from point A to point B. So you want 0:02:23.480 --> 0:02:26.440 to set a launch date in advance of a time 0:02:26.600 --> 0:02:29.040 when Earth and Mars are going to be relatively close 0:02:29.080 --> 0:02:31.560 to each other. That's the launch window we want to 0:02:31.560 --> 0:02:34.440 look at. But of course Mars is moving the whole 0:02:34.480 --> 0:02:37.320 time as his Earth. So really you're setting a launch 0:02:37.360 --> 0:02:39.680 window to aim at the point in space where Mars 0:02:39.880 --> 0:02:43.680 is going to be in several months after the launch. 0:02:43.919 --> 0:02:46.560 It's actually pretty complicated stuff. I mean, they do call 0:02:46.600 --> 0:02:50.120 it rocket science. Even when you take advantage of orbital paths, 0:02:50.280 --> 0:02:52.799 you're still talking about a trip that will take between 0:02:52.880 --> 0:02:56.560 six and eight months using conventional rockets, So you have 0:02:56.600 --> 0:02:59.080 to settle in for a long trip. Now, once you 0:02:59.120 --> 0:03:01.240 get to Mars, you won't be able to leave right 0:03:01.280 --> 0:03:03.600 away if you have a method of leaving in the 0:03:03.600 --> 0:03:06.040 first place, you would have to wait around for Earth 0:03:06.120 --> 0:03:08.600 and Mars to be nearing one another again. And a 0:03:08.680 --> 0:03:11.280 launch window for the minimal amount of energy needed to 0:03:11.320 --> 0:03:15.080 get between the two comes around only every two Earth 0:03:15.240 --> 0:03:18.760 years and two Earth months, So you need enough fuel 0:03:18.800 --> 0:03:20.959 to make the trip home, or you need some way 0:03:21.000 --> 0:03:24.600 to make the fuel at your destination, such as Mars, 0:03:24.760 --> 0:03:27.240 so that you can make the return trip. Now, you 0:03:27.280 --> 0:03:30.480 could make going to Mars a one way trip, and 0:03:30.520 --> 0:03:33.919 considering how hostile the planet is and how hard it 0:03:33.960 --> 0:03:38.040 would be to get back. That's probably not entirely unrealistic, 0:03:38.080 --> 0:03:40.400 if I'm being honest. We'll talk more about that in 0:03:40.440 --> 0:03:44.280 our next episode, but before we decide to shove someone 0:03:44.360 --> 0:03:48.000 off into space for a life sentence on Mars, we 0:03:48.160 --> 0:03:51.240 can send other craft to the red planet, and in 0:03:51.280 --> 0:03:55.920 fact we have that includes orbiters, which, as the name suggests, 0:03:56.440 --> 0:04:01.400 orbits the planet and gathers information about it. Landers, which 0:04:01.720 --> 0:04:05.040 has the name suggests, lands on the planet and gathers 0:04:05.080 --> 0:04:09.640 information about it. And rovers, which, again the name tells 0:04:09.680 --> 0:04:11.880 you everything you need to know. It roves about on 0:04:11.920 --> 0:04:16.680 the planet, gathering information and you know, doing sick donuts, 0:04:17.160 --> 0:04:19.279 and the name is pretty much tell you everything you 0:04:19.279 --> 0:04:21.919 need to know about them, at least in a general sense. 0:04:22.200 --> 0:04:25.080 So landing on Mars, particularly if you want to do 0:04:25.160 --> 0:04:28.760 a soft landing, is pretty challenging as well. That's because 0:04:28.760 --> 0:04:32.560 of several factors. One is that the Martian atmosphere is 0:04:32.680 --> 0:04:37.600 much thinner than Earth's, so stuff like parachutes are less effective. 0:04:37.960 --> 0:04:41.080 They do work, but they don't slow down to scent 0:04:41.320 --> 0:04:43.840 quite as effectively as they would if you were using 0:04:43.880 --> 0:04:48.520 them on Earth. However, the atmosphere is thick enough to 0:04:48.640 --> 0:04:52.760 cause heating problems. Upon entry of the atmosphere, the spacecraft 0:04:52.800 --> 0:04:54.880 starts to come in at a very high speed, it 0:04:54.960 --> 0:04:58.000 hits the atmosphere, starts to compress the atmosphere in front 0:04:58.040 --> 0:05:01.000 of it, and it begins to heat up rapidly. So 0:05:01.080 --> 0:05:04.040 whatever your spacecraft is, you need some really good heat 0:05:04.080 --> 0:05:06.440 shielding to take care of that problem. That of course 0:05:06.480 --> 0:05:10.560 adds to the weight of the spacecraft. And while gravity 0:05:10.600 --> 0:05:14.800 on Mars is less intense than on Earth, the gravity 0:05:14.800 --> 0:05:17.359 on Mars is about point three eight times out of 0:05:17.360 --> 0:05:21.080 Earth's gravity. Descending from Martian orbit still means you're going 0:05:21.120 --> 0:05:24.239 at a speed that's plenty fast enough to cause serious 0:05:24.320 --> 0:05:26.440 damage when you hit the ground, So you have to 0:05:26.440 --> 0:05:29.240 have a way to slow your descent. One way to 0:05:29.360 --> 0:05:33.159 offset that incredibly fast descent is to have special retro 0:05:33.320 --> 0:05:37.040 rockets on the landing craft and to fire those before 0:05:37.080 --> 0:05:40.400 you land so that you have a nice and gentle touchdown. 0:05:41.279 --> 0:05:44.880 That really would help slow the descent. But here's the 0:05:44.920 --> 0:05:47.520 thing with these craft that we're sending the landers and 0:05:47.520 --> 0:05:49.919 the rovers. For the ones that we're using for a 0:05:49.960 --> 0:05:54.000 soft landing, they have to rely upon a fully automated system. 0:05:54.200 --> 0:05:58.080 Because the distance between Mars and Earth is such that 0:05:58.200 --> 0:06:01.800 it takes several minutes for radio signals to pass back 0:06:01.839 --> 0:06:04.560 and forth between the two. Radio signals move at the 0:06:04.560 --> 0:06:08.040 speed of light, but the distances involved are so great 0:06:08.120 --> 0:06:10.400 that even light requires a few minutes to get the 0:06:10.520 --> 0:06:13.200 job done. So if you were looking at a video 0:06:13.279 --> 0:06:16.039 feed from the spacecraft, let's say that there's a live 0:06:16.200 --> 0:06:19.960 camera feed and it's able to send video back to Earth. 0:06:20.040 --> 0:06:23.039 This would be unrealistic, But let's say it's happening. What 0:06:23.160 --> 0:06:26.280 you would actually be looking at would be video from 0:06:26.320 --> 0:06:30.000 several minutes ago. The video footage would be several minutes old, 0:06:30.440 --> 0:06:32.479 because that's how long it took for the information to 0:06:32.560 --> 0:06:37.800 travel from the the lander or rover on Mars to 0:06:37.920 --> 0:06:40.880 get to you on Earth. Sending a message to the 0:06:40.960 --> 0:06:43.680 lander would obviously take more time. So let's say you 0:06:43.720 --> 0:06:46.440 see a picture and you think, oh, well, that's that 0:06:46.560 --> 0:06:48.880 rock over there is interesting. I want this thing to 0:06:48.920 --> 0:06:51.880 go grab that rock, and you send a command to 0:06:52.440 --> 0:06:56.000 the device. Well, keep in mind the picture you're looking 0:06:56.040 --> 0:06:58.359 at it several minutes old. When you send the message, 0:06:58.400 --> 0:07:00.320 it takes several more minutes for it to get back. 0:07:00.880 --> 0:07:02.720 The device then has to react to it, and it 0:07:02.760 --> 0:07:05.440 will take even more minutes for you to know that 0:07:05.640 --> 0:07:11.280 anything actually happened, so there's no way to make any 0:07:11.440 --> 0:07:16.200 adjustments in real time at all. So that's why the 0:07:16.200 --> 0:07:19.440 system has to be fully automated. When it's landing, there's 0:07:19.480 --> 0:07:22.440 no way to step in and take control of it 0:07:22.560 --> 0:07:26.480 as a remote pilot, because the distances are so great 0:07:26.560 --> 0:07:29.840 that by the time you're sending commands, the thing you're 0:07:29.840 --> 0:07:32.400 trying to command has already crashed into Mars. So you 0:07:32.480 --> 0:07:36.560 have to create this automated system. The landing process for 0:07:36.640 --> 0:07:39.640 this lander would take about six and a half minutes 0:07:39.720 --> 0:07:42.440 from the point it enters the Martian atmosphere to the 0:07:42.480 --> 0:07:46.880 point that it landed on the surface. NASA would call 0:07:46.960 --> 0:07:50.360 this the seven minutes of Terror. That six and a 0:07:50.400 --> 0:07:53.880 half minutes would include every single thing that would have 0:07:53.960 --> 0:07:57.240 to happen in this process of entering the atmosphere all 0:07:57.280 --> 0:08:00.400 the way to the point of firing the retro gets 0:08:00.680 --> 0:08:04.400 at settling down on the surface of Mars. If anything 0:08:04.400 --> 0:08:07.080 were to go wrong at any stage there, whether it 0:08:07.160 --> 0:08:09.840 maybe it's a parachute that fails to deploy, a thruster 0:08:09.960 --> 0:08:12.640 that fires a second too late, whatever it would be, 0:08:12.680 --> 0:08:14.720 all would be lost. Chances are you would have a 0:08:14.760 --> 0:08:18.680 total loss of the spacecraft. In addition, that distance between 0:08:18.720 --> 0:08:22.000 Earth and Mars would mean we wouldn't even know that 0:08:22.120 --> 0:08:25.000 something had gone wrong until about eight minutes after it 0:08:25.080 --> 0:08:30.320 had gone wrong, So if the lander were to crash 0:08:30.520 --> 0:08:33.480 and be destroyed, it would have been destroyed for eight 0:08:33.480 --> 0:08:37.240 minutes before we knew about it. Also, it meant that 0:08:37.360 --> 0:08:40.720 picking a landing site is incredibly important. You want to 0:08:40.760 --> 0:08:45.240 find the best possible site to target so that your 0:08:45.400 --> 0:08:48.600 lander or rover, whatever it may be, has the best 0:08:48.600 --> 0:08:52.440 possible chance of survival. NASA had to find a spot 0:08:52.480 --> 0:08:55.040 that not only would be optimal for whatever the mission 0:08:55.040 --> 0:08:58.520 objectives happened to be. In this case, it's all about 0:08:58.640 --> 0:09:04.640 measuring various uh features of Mars, but it also has 0:09:04.679 --> 0:09:07.640 to be geographically favorable for that successful landing and for 0:09:07.679 --> 0:09:12.800 a continued operation. Sou with the case of the Insight, 0:09:12.960 --> 0:09:15.000 it also meant that having to pick a spot that 0:09:15.040 --> 0:09:18.559 would be favorable for solar panels, because that's how the 0:09:18.559 --> 0:09:23.000 the Insight lander recharges its batteries. So for that reason, 0:09:23.080 --> 0:09:25.640 they chose a spot near the equator because that would 0:09:25.880 --> 0:09:30.840 maximize solar exposure, and because you're relying upon automated systems 0:09:30.880 --> 0:09:33.240 to guide the landing craft to the surface. You also 0:09:33.280 --> 0:09:35.880 have to pick a location that's relatively flat and free 0:09:35.880 --> 0:09:38.680 of large rocks or boulders that could cause the craft 0:09:38.720 --> 0:09:42.679 to topple over after touchdown. That is a tough thing 0:09:42.760 --> 0:09:45.720 to look for on Mars. Mars is very very rocky 0:09:46.000 --> 0:09:49.000 and uneven in many places, but the team in NASA 0:09:49.160 --> 0:09:52.839 eventually chose a region of Mars called the Elysium Planetia. 0:09:53.559 --> 0:09:56.120 That was way back in when they made that choice. 0:09:56.600 --> 0:09:59.520 That first, NASA had more than twenty potential landing sites 0:09:59.559 --> 0:10:03.040 identify light. Then the team directed the Mars Reconnaissance orbiter 0:10:03.160 --> 0:10:05.559 to gather images of those sites so that they could 0:10:05.640 --> 0:10:09.360 choose the best candidates. Each potential site measured eighty one 0:10:09.440 --> 0:10:13.120 miles by seventeen miles in an elliptical shape. That's a 0:10:13.240 --> 0:10:17.079 hundred thirty kilometers by twenty seven kilometers. The insight landing 0:10:17.080 --> 0:10:20.000 location is about three d seventy miles or six hundred 0:10:20.040 --> 0:10:24.040 kilometers away from where the curiosity rover is, so it's 0:10:24.080 --> 0:10:25.800 probably not going to get a visit from its fellow 0:10:25.880 --> 0:10:29.440 robot anytime soon, and a monitor the progress of the 0:10:29.440 --> 0:10:33.400 actual landing. NASA sent up a pair of small satellites 0:10:33.440 --> 0:10:38.120 called cube SATs. Along with the Insight These were the 0:10:38.160 --> 0:10:41.760 first two cubes AT spacecraft to journey into deep space. 0:10:42.200 --> 0:10:46.520 They are communications relay satellites. These particular cube SAT satellites 0:10:46.559 --> 0:10:50.000 are the Jet Propulsion Laboratory designed and built them. The 0:10:50.040 --> 0:10:52.560 basic unit of a cube sat is a box about 0:10:52.559 --> 0:10:56.000 ten centimeters or four inches to a side, and CubeSats 0:10:56.040 --> 0:10:59.360 can be made up of multiple units, and the two 0:10:59.400 --> 0:11:03.120 that were hitching a ride with Insight were each six 0:11:03.240 --> 0:11:07.200 units large. The job of those two satellites involved flying 0:11:07.280 --> 0:11:10.520 by Mars and listening for Insights signal that would indicate 0:11:10.520 --> 0:11:14.839 a successful landing. The CubeSats both have UHF capabilities, though 0:11:14.880 --> 0:11:19.520 they can only receive UHF radio signals and X band capabilities, 0:11:19.559 --> 0:11:24.040 which meant they could receive and transmit over those frequencies. Interestingly, 0:11:24.440 --> 0:11:27.360 those satellites separated from the launch vehicle that was an 0:11:27.400 --> 0:11:31.760 Atlas five rocket, and they did so independently of the 0:11:31.840 --> 0:11:36.160 Insight cruise spacecraft, and so they flew to Mars on 0:11:36.160 --> 0:11:39.760 their own trajectories and with their own course adjustments in 0:11:39.840 --> 0:11:42.360 order to get to where they needed to be for 0:11:42.559 --> 0:11:45.840 the actual landing procedure. The satellites also served as a 0:11:45.880 --> 0:11:48.560 pilot program to test the viability of a bring your 0:11:48.559 --> 0:11:52.960 own communications relay with a short development cycle into deep space, 0:11:53.320 --> 0:11:55.480 and it worked. Now I have a lot more to 0:11:55.520 --> 0:11:59.280 say about INSIGHT and what it does, but before we 0:11:59.320 --> 0:12:02.000 get to that, take a quick break to thank our sponsor. 0:12:09.760 --> 0:12:15.040 The full name for INSIGHT is the Interior Exploration using 0:12:15.080 --> 0:12:20.400 Seismic Investigations, GEO Daisy and Heat Transport. And I have 0:12:20.440 --> 0:12:23.280 a sneaking suspicion. This is another case of a mission 0:12:23.280 --> 0:12:25.760 getting a fun name and then a project team tries 0:12:25.800 --> 0:12:28.800 to work backward to make that name into an acronym. 0:12:28.800 --> 0:12:31.640 But I don't know that for sure. The purpose of 0:12:31.640 --> 0:12:35.360 the mission is to deduce how celestial bodies that have 0:12:35.400 --> 0:12:38.920 a rocky surface are formed, how do they come to be. 0:12:39.720 --> 0:12:43.160 This would include planets like Earth, as well as satellites 0:12:43.240 --> 0:12:47.280 like our Moon, and of course planets like Mars. The 0:12:47.360 --> 0:12:50.520 Lander is going to do this by using several scientific 0:12:50.559 --> 0:12:54.640 instruments to study the deep interior of Mars, and then 0:12:54.679 --> 0:12:56.360 the team back on Earth is going to take the 0:12:56.440 --> 0:13:01.160 information and form hypotheses to explain the formation process. The 0:13:01.240 --> 0:13:04.360 Lander will also gather data that will allow scientists on 0:13:04.400 --> 0:13:08.160 Earth to make educated guesses about Mars's core. So this 0:13:08.200 --> 0:13:13.599 is really cool. This is all about observing planet's behavior 0:13:13.720 --> 0:13:17.160 in a way and then drawing conclusions about what that 0:13:17.240 --> 0:13:22.000 means for the planet, what how the planet is made up, 0:13:22.040 --> 0:13:24.240 you know, what sort of core it has, that kind 0:13:24.280 --> 0:13:27.520 of stuff, and it's all about working backward based upon 0:13:27.559 --> 0:13:32.200 these observations. I love this kind of science. Insight is 0:13:32.280 --> 0:13:36.240 kind of like the Phoenix Lander, and that both of 0:13:36.280 --> 0:13:40.600 those are stationary robotic platforms, so it's not like the Spirit, 0:13:40.679 --> 0:13:45.080 Opportunity or Curiosity rovers. Those are all robots with wheels 0:13:45.120 --> 0:13:47.240 that can move around the surface of Mars. Actually, the 0:13:47.240 --> 0:13:50.760 Opportunity and Curiosity rovers are still in operation to this day. 0:13:51.760 --> 0:13:54.640 Opportunity landed on Mars in two thousand four and Curiosity 0:13:54.720 --> 0:13:56.840 landed in two thousand twelve, and there's still kind of 0:13:56.920 --> 0:14:01.040 roaming around. But insights job is to monitor conditions from 0:14:01.080 --> 0:14:04.200 a set location over the course of a Martian year 0:14:04.320 --> 0:14:09.200 plus forty or so martian days. Insight is a pretty 0:14:09.640 --> 0:14:13.720 large lander. NASA describes it as being about the size 0:14:13.840 --> 0:14:18.400 of a big nineteen sixties convertible. That's a quote, but 0:14:18.559 --> 0:14:22.280 this is tech stuffs. Let's get technical. What are the 0:14:22.360 --> 0:14:26.680 specs for the Insight Lander, well, it is six ms long. 0:14:26.920 --> 0:14:30.760 That's about nineteen ft eight inches, assuming you're measuring it 0:14:30.800 --> 0:14:33.880 when it's solar panels are deployed. Again, we'll talk about 0:14:33.880 --> 0:14:36.480 the solar planel panels in just a minute. It's got 0:14:36.560 --> 0:14:39.560 a width of one point five six ms that's about 0:14:39.640 --> 0:14:43.440 five ft one inch. Uh. The deck height, so the 0:14:43.440 --> 0:14:46.720 the top surface of the main portion of the lander 0:14:47.360 --> 0:14:51.080 ranges from eighty three centimeters to one centimeters tall or 0:14:51.160 --> 0:14:54.560 thirty three to forty three inches. The whole thing weighs 0:14:54.560 --> 0:14:58.480 in at a smelt three d sixty ms. Technically that's 0:14:58.480 --> 0:15:01.800 its mass. Uh we If we're expressing it in pounds, 0:15:01.840 --> 0:15:05.800 it would be seven pounds here on Earth. Remember, on 0:15:05.920 --> 0:15:10.120 Mars the mass is the same, but it weighs less 0:15:10.400 --> 0:15:12.600 because again, mars Is gravity is a little more than 0:15:12.680 --> 0:15:15.640 one third that of Earth's gravity. The lander has a 0:15:15.640 --> 0:15:18.760 lot of cool gadgets attached to it. It draws power 0:15:18.840 --> 0:15:22.160 through batteries that are recharged by those solar panels I 0:15:22.200 --> 0:15:26.920 had mentioned. Those actually had to deploy after Insight touched down, 0:15:27.040 --> 0:15:30.400 before they were all folded up and tucked away on 0:15:30.440 --> 0:15:34.200 the sides of the platform for safety. About an hour 0:15:34.320 --> 0:15:39.160 after touchdown, they began the deployment phase and this involves 0:15:39.280 --> 0:15:42.680 unfolding and then they can start catching the sun's rays. 0:15:42.760 --> 0:15:45.200 And there's a great website for the lander over at 0:15:45.280 --> 0:15:50.600 NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory that shows animations of the solar 0:15:50.640 --> 0:15:53.960 panels deploying as well as the other tools and how 0:15:54.000 --> 0:15:57.480 those get deployed. The animations are fantastic, they really help 0:15:57.560 --> 0:16:00.680 a lot, So I highly recommend if you're interested in 0:16:00.720 --> 0:16:04.520 the Insight Lander checking out the interactive web page over 0:16:04.720 --> 0:16:09.280 at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory because it's it's fantastic and 0:16:09.360 --> 0:16:12.400 it looks super cool. Uh. The panels, the solar panels 0:16:12.400 --> 0:16:16.200 are decagonal. That means they have ten straight sides and angles. 0:16:16.240 --> 0:16:19.760 You know, an octagon is eight sides and eight angles. 0:16:19.800 --> 0:16:23.760 A decagon is ten, so they're kind of circular in shape, 0:16:23.840 --> 0:16:27.240 but they have those flat edges. The panels measure about 0:16:27.280 --> 0:16:31.080 seven feet or two meters across, and there are two 0:16:31.160 --> 0:16:34.040 of them. Has a pair of these solar panels. According 0:16:34.080 --> 0:16:37.000 to one NASA web page, the combined surface area of 0:16:37.000 --> 0:16:40.040 the two solar panels is quote as large as a 0:16:40.120 --> 0:16:43.640 ping pong table end quote. So you know, some light 0:16:43.680 --> 0:16:47.280 recreation on Mars. If you if you decide that it's 0:16:47.440 --> 0:16:50.520 served its purpose, I guess they're able to generate about 0:16:50.520 --> 0:16:55.040 three thousand what hours of electricity every martian day. Another 0:16:55.120 --> 0:16:59.360 important component on this lander is its robot arm. The 0:16:59.520 --> 0:17:02.960 arm has three degrees of freedom and those roughly translate 0:17:03.480 --> 0:17:07.600 to a human shoulder, elbow, and wrist joint. The arm 0:17:07.680 --> 0:17:10.479 has four motors to control the movements of the arm 0:17:10.520 --> 0:17:12.640 and those joints. And at the end of the arm, 0:17:12.680 --> 0:17:16.480 instead of there being a hand or like a claw, 0:17:17.040 --> 0:17:20.879 there's actually a grapple. It's attached by a cable. It 0:17:21.040 --> 0:17:24.840 dangles at the end of the arm, and this is 0:17:24.960 --> 0:17:27.960 used to grasp the various tools on the platform deck 0:17:28.119 --> 0:17:31.520 in order to lift them up and deploy them onto Mars' surface. 0:17:32.280 --> 0:17:35.480 So it kind of looks like one of those claw 0:17:35.600 --> 0:17:39.480 games you see in arcades or in the Toy Story film. 0:17:39.520 --> 0:17:41.800 It kind of looks like that, except that the claw 0:17:41.960 --> 0:17:46.320 does not descend and ascend. The cable doesn't unwind and wind. 0:17:46.880 --> 0:17:49.200 It stays the same length, so the arm itself will 0:17:49.240 --> 0:17:53.600 tilt up or down. But the claw does dangle from 0:17:53.640 --> 0:17:57.200 a cable. It just the cable itself is stationary. It's 0:17:57.520 --> 0:18:00.520 also got a firm grip, which also means it's not 0:18:00.560 --> 0:18:02.800 really like a claw game because those things are rigged 0:18:02.840 --> 0:18:07.679 I tell you, stupid Teddy Bear. Anyway, it's a super 0:18:07.720 --> 0:18:13.240 cool way of manipulating objects on the lander, and again 0:18:13.280 --> 0:18:16.760 the animations are really fun to watch. There's a camera 0:18:17.040 --> 0:18:20.960 mounted on this arm it's actually between the elbow and 0:18:21.040 --> 0:18:24.959 wrist joints that can provide NASA images of Mars and 0:18:25.040 --> 0:18:27.639 help the team make sure that the instrumentation that's attached 0:18:27.680 --> 0:18:30.920 to the platform is properly deployed. In fact, it's called 0:18:30.960 --> 0:18:34.520 the Instrument Deployment Camera or i d C. So the 0:18:34.520 --> 0:18:37.520 main purpose for the arm is to place the two 0:18:37.680 --> 0:18:40.600 of the three main sensors on the platform, two of 0:18:40.640 --> 0:18:46.000 the three main scientific experiments really on the surface of Mars. 0:18:46.000 --> 0:18:50.040 More on those two experiments in just a moment. The 0:18:50.119 --> 0:18:53.280 lander actually has a second camera. That one is mounted 0:18:53.680 --> 0:18:56.399 just below the surface of the deck. This one is 0:18:56.440 --> 0:19:00.479 called the Instrument Context Camera or i C SEE, and 0:19:00.560 --> 0:19:03.119 it has a fish eye perspective with a field of 0:19:03.160 --> 0:19:06.560 view of about hundred twenty degrees. It's aimed at the 0:19:06.640 --> 0:19:11.440 ground near the lander that serves as the landers work space. 0:19:12.080 --> 0:19:15.200 So both cameras have a resolution of one thousand, twenty 0:19:15.200 --> 0:19:18.760 four by one pixels, which is not quite a two 0:19:18.840 --> 0:19:23.920 megapixel image. And in an interesting analogy, NASA has compared 0:19:23.960 --> 0:19:26.919 the mission to a human getting a medical check up. 0:19:27.200 --> 0:19:31.240 The Insight Lander is going to check Mars's vitals, which 0:19:31.280 --> 0:19:35.800 includes the planet's pulse, temperature, and reflexes. So what was 0:19:35.840 --> 0:19:39.040 that all about. Well, these are all kind of cute 0:19:39.040 --> 0:19:42.879 ways to talk about the main instruments and scientific projects 0:19:42.920 --> 0:19:46.280 connected to the Insight Lander. So let's start with the pulse, 0:19:46.960 --> 0:19:49.920 the pulse of the planet in this case. In this context, 0:19:50.040 --> 0:19:55.399 it refers to the seismological events on Mars. So things 0:19:55.440 --> 0:19:58.440 that make the earth shake, or I guess I should 0:19:58.440 --> 0:20:02.720 say Mars shake, it's not the earth there so, or 0:20:02.760 --> 0:20:05.480 as my former co host Crispalett would say, stuff what 0:20:05.600 --> 0:20:08.800 makes the ground shake. One of the instruments inside has 0:20:09.280 --> 0:20:12.720 is a special seismometer with a super cool wind and 0:20:12.840 --> 0:20:17.400 thermal shield. The seismometer has a cable tether that connects 0:20:17.440 --> 0:20:21.000 it back to the Insight Lander, and the cable's purpose 0:20:21.080 --> 0:20:24.160 is twofold. It contains both the power line and the 0:20:24.240 --> 0:20:27.800 data line for the seismometer. So this is the way 0:20:27.840 --> 0:20:31.240 that the lander can provide electricity to the seismometer, and 0:20:31.240 --> 0:20:34.600 the seismometer can feed data back to the lander. The 0:20:34.640 --> 0:20:36.520 illustrations I've looked at make it a little like the 0:20:36.520 --> 0:20:40.639 insight lander is kind of walking a weird, lumpy robot dog. 0:20:41.280 --> 0:20:44.680 The lander's robotic arm is responsible for lifting the seismometer 0:20:44.880 --> 0:20:47.600 off the platform and placing it on the surface of 0:20:47.640 --> 0:20:50.800 Mars near the lander itself. Then it has to put 0:20:50.840 --> 0:20:55.480 the uh the thermal and wind shield over the seismometer. 0:20:56.000 --> 0:20:58.040 The purpose of the shield is pretty much what sounds like. 0:20:58.119 --> 0:21:01.320 It's meant to protect the seismometer from gusts of wind, 0:21:01.400 --> 0:21:06.000 primarily that would possibly cause the seizemometer to register false readings. 0:21:06.040 --> 0:21:09.080 If the wind pushes the seismometer around that it's going 0:21:09.119 --> 0:21:12.600 to start registering as if there's an earthquake or Mars quake. 0:21:12.680 --> 0:21:16.080 I guess this way, the shield blocks that wind and 0:21:16.160 --> 0:21:20.840 the seizemometer just keeps on, you know, monitoring the movement 0:21:21.000 --> 0:21:24.800 of the ground beneath it. The wind and thermal shield 0:21:24.920 --> 0:21:28.280 is made out of aluminum. The main shielding part on 0:21:28.280 --> 0:21:30.280 the top anyway, is made out of aluminum. It looks 0:21:30.320 --> 0:21:32.840 like a dome with little lander legs almost like a 0:21:32.840 --> 0:21:36.639 little ufo. It also has a metallic skirt that hangs 0:21:36.720 --> 0:21:40.719 down beneath the dome. It's the thermal skirt. It's actually 0:21:40.760 --> 0:21:45.080 made out of gold. And then this gold skirt has 0:21:45.119 --> 0:21:47.680 a bottom edge made out of and I am not 0:21:48.280 --> 0:21:51.120 making this up, honest to goodness, the edge is made 0:21:51.119 --> 0:21:56.120 out of chain mail, like the stuff that nights used 0:21:56.160 --> 0:21:59.200 to wear back in medieval times. How cool is that? 0:21:59.680 --> 0:22:03.000 So this chain mail actually serves a couple of different purposes. 0:22:03.040 --> 0:22:05.679 For one, it's it's heavier than the skirt is, so 0:22:05.720 --> 0:22:08.560 it helps pull down on the skirt while the little 0:22:08.680 --> 0:22:11.879 arm is lifting the shield up off the deck of 0:22:12.000 --> 0:22:15.760 the lander. The chain mail provides the weight to help 0:22:15.880 --> 0:22:19.320 pull the skirt straight so that it goes down all 0:22:19.400 --> 0:22:23.120 around the sides of the seismometer. Also, the chain mail 0:22:23.240 --> 0:22:27.080 is flexible, so it can drape over any small pebbles 0:22:27.160 --> 0:22:29.679 or rocks to allow a pretty good seal of the 0:22:29.720 --> 0:22:33.400 shield over the seismometer. The shield itself is about fourteen 0:22:33.480 --> 0:22:36.960 inches or thirty five centimeters tall, twenty seven inches or 0:22:37.040 --> 0:22:40.119 sixty nine centimeters in diameter, and has a mass of 0:22:40.119 --> 0:22:42.760 twelve kilograms, which means here on Earth it would weigh 0:22:42.800 --> 0:22:46.000 about twenty six and a half pounds. I'll finish up 0:22:46.080 --> 0:22:49.840 this section by giving a quick overview of how seismometers work, 0:22:49.880 --> 0:22:52.439 and then we'll talk about the other two experiments in 0:22:52.440 --> 0:22:56.160 the next section. So typically we would pair a seismometer 0:22:56.400 --> 0:22:59.560 up with some sort of recording device, which would mean 0:22:59.600 --> 0:23:01.919 that we would have a seismograph. That's when you have 0:23:02.000 --> 0:23:05.080 the two components together. So a simple version of this 0:23:05.240 --> 0:23:08.320 one that you might see here on Earth uh, an 0:23:08.320 --> 0:23:13.720 old school simple mechanical version of a seismometer would be 0:23:14.240 --> 0:23:17.480 a frame that has good contact with the ground. So 0:23:17.720 --> 0:23:22.080 you've got a frame that is set on whatever surface 0:23:22.119 --> 0:23:25.920 you're measuring. Suspended from the top of that frame would 0:23:25.960 --> 0:23:29.200 be a weight on a spring, and the weight would 0:23:29.200 --> 0:23:32.000 hold some sort of writing utensil, like a pen. That 0:23:32.080 --> 0:23:35.080 pen the end of it would rest against a strip 0:23:35.119 --> 0:23:39.200 of paper that could be rolled or pulled in such 0:23:39.240 --> 0:23:41.520