A Few Mars InSight Images

Have not seen many InSight images posted yet. Compared to what MSL can capture with it's cameras it is true the images are not that great, but they are images of a new, unseen site on Mars.
The image of the descent thrusters is pretty cool and brings to mind when the Phoenix lander made a successful landing it was pointed out this was a big step toward getting humans on Mars.
All of the many unsuccessful landings on Mars over the decades, to my knowledge, have been powered landings with thrusters. This is why NASA started bouncing spacecraft onto Mars. With MSL they advanced to the sky crane method.

It is unlikely these methods can be used to land humans on Mars. For that a powered descent is needed, I would think. With 2 successful powered descent landings back to back it looks like NASA may have figured it out. That would seem to be a major advancement toward landing humans on Mars.

There are some nice images that have been stitched together by people like James Canvin and Damia Bouic.

a reply to: LookingAtMars

But we can hear Mars now!
(can anyone play it backwards?)

a reply to: Phage

Yes, and it sounded almost the same

It is the first time I saw a crater produced by the descent engines. I was only wondering why it s not exactly under the nozzles, but that could be because of the cut-off before hitting the ground and setteling of the craft on its telescopic legs (with sand covering the feet), I assume.

a reply to: LookingAtMars

Had not seen this.

Nice post !

originally posted by: 2Faced
It is the first time I saw a crater produced by the descent engines. I was only wondering why it s not exactly under the nozzles, but that could be because of the cut-off before hitting the ground and setteling of the craft on its telescopic legs (with sand covering the feet), I assume.

Good point, and I think you maybe right about the drift after cut-off.

originally posted by: LookingAtMars

Elon Musk, super duper brilliant genius guy, he should go live there.

Someone on UMSF that works on this mission stated "HIRISE is supposed to release an image later this week. I have seen an image that shows the lander, heatshield, and backshell/parachute location. Have not seen the actual HIRISE image but instead a pre-landing one with dots on the spots where those are located."

That should be a nice image and will confirm if NASA really did miss the landing ellipse as has been mentioned on a few forums/blogs that usually are in the know.

a reply to: LookingAtMars

It could just be thrusters keeping it straight up and down.

Think gyroscope.

originally posted by: LookingAtMars
Have not seen many InSight images posted yet. Compared to what MSL can capture with it's cameras it is true the images are not that great, but they are images of a new, unseen site on Mars.

The image of the descent thrusters is pretty cool and brings to mind when the Phoenix lander made a successful landing it was pointed out this was a big step toward getting humans on Mars.

All of the many unsuccessful landings on Mars over the decades, to my knowledge, have been powered landings with thrusters. This is why NASA started bouncing spacecraft onto Mars. With MSL they advanced to the sky crane method.

It is unlikely these methods can be used to land humans on Mars. For that a powered descent is needed, I would think. With 2 successful powered descent landings back to back it looks like NASA may have figured it out. That would seem to be a major advancement toward landing humans on Mars.

There are some nice images that have been stitched together by people like James Canvin and Damia Bouic.

it's amazing how it ain't hard to walk for a bit and to find places in our backyard that look straight outta Mars, lol. It makes me feel like we're a lot closer to the red planet.

originally posted by: Mousteria

it's amazing how it ain't hard to walk for a bit and to find places in our backyard that look straight outta Mars, lol. It makes me feel like we're a lot closer to the red planet.

If you climb down into the nozzle of a huge geyser it should look just like Venus.

Insight as seen from orbit:



mars.nasa.gov...

Worth downloading that image and zooming right in - the detail is amazing! The probe itself is in the centre, the other two images are the parachute and heatshield.

a reply to: OneBigMonkeyToo
Nice, you can see the two solar panels, and a couple of glints from the instrumentation.

Fingers crossed for a full release with JP2 files.

Skull boy:

The coordinates of the lander are 135.6180° E, 4.4988° N

Here's the site in HIRISE images taken before the landing:


hirise.lpl.arizona.edu...


hirise.lpl.arizona.edu...

I'll try to make a "before and after" GIF, or maybe someone else will make it meanwhile.

A GIF I just made of before and after the landing:

originally posted by: wildespace
The coordinates of the lander are 135.6180° E, 4.4988° N

Here's the site in HIRISE images taken before the landing:

hirise.lpl.arizona.edu...

hirise.lpl.arizona.edu...

I'll try to make a "before and after" GIF, or maybe someone else will make it meanwhile.

Cool Gif! Looks like NASA did hit within the landing ellipses from what I can tell. Can you pinpoint the location in the THEMIS image below?


Here is a pic of NASA's mock-up of the landing site.

originally posted by: LookingAtMars
Cool Gif! Looks like NASA did hit within the landing ellipses from what I can tell.

Not only that, but they hit within the long and narrow strip covered by the HiRISE images!

Can you pinpoint the location in the THEMIS image below?

a reply to: wildespace

It's almost as if they know what they're doing

You can now import one of the HiRISE images of the landing area into Google Earth by downloading and opening this file: drive.google.com...

The second file, if you open it after the first one, will show the new HiRISE overlays with the actual harware: docs.google.com...



Source: Unmanned Spaceflight Forum