NASA Adds Another Surface Instrument On Mars
With its successful positioning of the second surface instrument by Insight Mission, NASA is all set to discover the secrets and information hidden beneath the surface of Mars. The US space agency, NASA’s Insight Mission landed on Mars on February 26, 2018. The instrument is named as HP3 and is a heat-flow probe, which was placed next to SEIS seismometer. This seismometer was deployed in December 2018. These two will be used for an onboarding radio experiment, in which these sensors will investigate the interior of Mars, meaning the internal geometry of Mars’s surface. This underground experiment is going to reveal many information’s about the present day and will help to find the answer for layering of sub-surfaced rocks. This information will play crucial role in further research.
Talking about HP3, it is a heat flow and physical property package led in Germany. The instrument is incorporated in such way that it can drill a mole up to 5m down the surface. The SEIS system will also listen to ‘mars-quakes’ and the meteorite impacts of Mars. SEIS being a French instrument will be led by France team. This information will help the scientists to develop a complete picture from core to crust of this red planet. Other than this, SEIS will also monitor the HP3 instrument while it will be undergoing its burrowing activity.
The local vibration which will be made by the action of HP3, help SEIS to gather information about the underground material near the surface where digging will be going on. The instrument has touched the surface of Mars at a flat terrain near the equator of the planet. The region where it landed is termed as Elysium Planitia. If everything goes as planned, NASA will perform this experiment for at least the next two years which means for one Martian year.