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Add Image to Favorite List 2021-06-03 Mars InSight
Heat and Physical Properties Package (HP3)
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To clean a bit of dust from one of its solar panels, NASA's InSight lander trickled sand above the panel. The wind-borne sand grains then picked up some dust on the panel, enabling the lander to gain about 30 watt-hours of energy per sol on May 22, 2021.
PIA24664:
InSight's Robotic Arm Helps Remove Solar Panel Dust Trickles Sand in the Wind
Full Resolution:     TIFF (3.147 MB)     JPEG (194.1 kB)
Add Image to Favorite List 2021-04-01 Mars InSight
Heat and Physical Properties Package (HP3)
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NASA's InSight lander used a scoop on its robotic arm to begin trickling soil over the cable connecting its seismometer to the spacecraft on March 14, 2021. Scientists hope insulating it from the wind will make it easier to detect marsquakes.
PIA24450:
InSight Starts Burying Seismometer's Cable
Full Resolution:     TIFF (2.22 MB)     JPEG (140.4 kB)
Add Image to Favorite List 2021-01-14 Mars InSight
Heat and Physical Properties Package (HP3)
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The mole, a heat probe that traveled to Mars aboard NASA's InSight lander, as it looked after hammering on Jan. 9, 2021. After trying since Feb. 28, 2019, to bury the probe, the mission team called an end to their efforts.
PIA24263:
InSight's Mole Comes to Rest
Full Resolution:     TIFF (2.821 MB)     JPEG (211.8 kB)
Add Image to Favorite List 2020-10-16 Mars InSight
Heat and Physical Properties Package (HP3)
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This footage from Aug. 19, 2019, shows a replica of InSight scraping soil with a scoop on the end of its robotic arm in a test lab at JPL. On Mars, InSight will scrape and tamp down soil on top of the mole to help it dig.
PIA24099:
Replica of InSight's Arm Practices Scraping
Full Resolution:     TIFF (1.673 MB)     JPEG (133.5 kB)
Add Image to Favorite List 2020-10-16 Mars InSight
Heat and Physical Properties Package (HP3)
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NASA's InSight retracted its robotic arm on Oct. 3, 2020, revealing where the spike-like mole is trying to burrow into Mars. In the coming months, the arm will scrape and tamp down soil on top of the mole to help it dig.
PIA24098:
InSight's Arm Pulls Back, Revealing the Mole
Full Resolution:     TIFF (2.936 MB)     JPEG (235.9 kB)
Add Image to Favorite List 2020-07-07 Mars InSight
Heat and Physical Properties Package (HP3)
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The movement of sand grains in the scoop on the end of NASA InSight's robotic arm suggests that the spacecraft's self-hammering mole had begun tapping the bottom of the scoop while hammering on June 20, 2020.
PIA23896:
NASA InSight's Mole Taps the Bottom of the Lander's Scoop
Full Resolution:     TIFF (2.857 MB)     JPEG (228.6 kB)
Add Image to Favorite List 2020-02-21 Mars InSight
Heat and Physical Properties Package (HP3)
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InSight recently moved its robotic arm closer to its digging device, called the mole, in preparation to push on its top, or back cap.
PIA23622:
InSight Prepares to Push on the Mole
Full Resolution:     TIFF (2.871 MB)     JPEG (233.8 kB)
Add Image to Favorite List 2020-02-21 Mars InSight
Heat and Physical Properties Package (HP3)
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This test using an engineering model of the InSight lander here on Earth shows how the spacecraft on Mars will use its robotic arm to press on a digging device, called the mole.
PIA23619:
Robotic Arm Pushes on a Model of the Mole
Full Resolution:     TIFF (72.03 MB)     JPEG (2.805 MB)
Add Image to Favorite List 2019-11-06 Mars InSight
Heat and Physical Properties Package (HP3)
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The shadow of NASA InSight's robotic arm moves over its heat probe on Nov. 3, 2019, the 333rd Martian day, or sol, of the mission.
PIA23512:
InSight's Arm Camera Stares Into the Pit
Full Resolution:     TIFF (2.879 MB)     JPEG (199.8 kB)
Add Image to Favorite List 2019-10-03 Mars InSight
Heat and Physical Properties Package (HP3)
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NASA InSight's robotic arm will use its scoop to pin the spacecraft's heat probe, or 'mole,' against the wall of its hole.
PIA23373:
Preparing to Pin the Mole
Full Resolution:     TIFF (2.858 MB)     JPEG (238.3 kB)
Add Image to Favorite List 2019-06-05 Mars InSight
Heat and Physical Properties Package (HP3)
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The robotic arm on NASA's Mars InSight lander moves in place over the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3) and opens the fingers of its grapple in this series of images from June 1, 2019.
PIA23277:
Getting Ready to Help InSight's Heat Probe
Full Resolution:     TIFF (2.809 MB)     JPEG (210.1 kB)
Add Image to Favorite List 2019-06-05 Mars InSight
Heat and Physical Properties Package (HP3)
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In a JPL lab, a replica of NASA InSight's robotic arm presses with its scoop on crushed garnet near a replica of the spacecraft's self-hammering 'mole.'
PIA23276:
Testing How InSight's Arm Will Push on Mars
Full Resolution:     TIFF (22.85 MB)     JPEG (941.4 kB)
Add Image to Favorite List 2019-06-05 Mars InSight
Heat and Physical Properties Package (HP3)
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The self-hammering mole, part of the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3) on NASA's InSight lander, was only partially buried in the soil of Mars as of early June 2019, as shown in this illustration.
PIA23274:
Current Position of InSight's Mole (Illustration)
Full Resolution:     TIFF (16.7 MB)     JPEG (1.522 MB)
Add Image to Favorite List 2019-06-05 Mars InSight
Heat and Physical Properties Package (HP3)
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Engineers in a Mars-like test area at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory try possible strategies to aid the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3) on NASA's InSight lander, using engineering models of the lander, robotic arm and instrument.
PIA23272:
JPL Engineers Test Heat Probe Strategies
Full Resolution:     TIFF (72.03 MB)     JPEG (3.492 MB)
Add Image to Favorite List 2019-06-05 Mars InSight
Heat and Physical Properties Package (HP3)
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The support structure of the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3) instrument moved slightly during hammering, as indicated by the circular 'footprints' around the instrument's footpads.
PIA23271:
Signs of the Heat Probe Shifting on Mars
Full Resolution:     TIFF (1.676 MB)     JPEG (89.25 kB)
Add Image to Favorite List 2019-02-13 Mars InSight
Heat and Physical Properties Package (HP3)
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NASA's InSight lander set its heat probe, called the Heat and Physical Properties Package (HP3), on the Martian surface on Feb. 12, 2019.
PIA23046:
HP3 on the Martian Surface
Full Resolution:     TIFF (3.147 MB)     JPEG (189.3 kB)
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