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The InSight Mars Lander and Its Effect on the Subsurface Thermal Environment

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Abstract

The 2018 InSight (Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport) Mission has the mission goal of providing insitu data for the first measurement of the geothermal heat flow of Mars. The Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3) will take thermal conductivity and thermal gradient measurements to approximately 5 m depth. By necessity, this measurement will be made within a few meters of the lander. This means that thermal perturbations from the lander will modify local surface and subsurface temperature measurements. For HP3’s sensitive thermal gradient measurements, this spacecraft influence will be important to model and parameterize. Here we present a basic 3D model of thermal effects of the lander on its surroundings. Though lander perturbations significantly alter subsurface temperatures, a successful thermal gradient measurement will be possible in all thermal conditions by proper (\(>3~\mbox{m}\) depth) placement of the heat flow probe.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the InSight Project for support leading to these efforts and thank the reviewers for their helpful suggestions and corrections. Part of this research was carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. This paper is InSight Contribution Number (ICN) 13.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Planetary Science Institute, Tucson, AZ, USA

    Matthew A. Siegler

  2. Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX, USA

    Matthew A. Siegler

  3. California Institute of Technology, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, 91109, USA

    Suzanne E. Smrekar, Sylvain Piqueux & Nils Mueller

  4. Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR), Berlin, Germany

    Matthias Grott, Ana-Catalina Plesa & Tilman Spohn

  5. University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Jean-Pierre Williams

Authors
  1. Matthew A. Siegler
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  2. Suzanne E. Smrekar
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  3. Matthias Grott
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  4. Sylvain Piqueux
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  5. Nils Mueller
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  6. Jean-Pierre Williams
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  7. Ana-Catalina Plesa
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  8. Tilman Spohn
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Correspondence to Matthew A. Siegler.

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Siegler, M.A., Smrekar, S.E., Grott, M. et al. The InSight Mars Lander and Its Effect on the Subsurface Thermal Environment. Space Sci Rev 211, 259–275 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11214-017-0331-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11214-017-0331-2

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