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Preparing to Pin the Mole

Oct 03, 2019
NASA InSight's robotic arm will use its scoop to pin the spacecraft's heat probe, or 'mole,' against the wall of its hole.

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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. The mole is part of an instrument formally called the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package, or HP3, provided by the German Aerospace Center (DLR).

JPL manages InSight for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. InSight is part of NASA's Discovery Program, managed by the agency's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Lockheed Martin Space in Denver built the InSight spacecraft, including its cruise stage and lander, and supports spacecraft operations for the mission.

A number of European partners, including France's Centre National d'Études Spatiales (CNES) and the German Aerospace Center (DLR), are supporting the InSight mission. CNES and the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris (IPGP) provided the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS) instrument, with significant contributions from the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS) in Germany, the Swiss Institute of Technology (ETH) in Switzerland, Imperial College and Oxford University in the United Kingdom, and JPL. DLR provided the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3) instrument, with significant contributions from the Space Research Center (CBK) of the Polish Academy of Sciences and Astronika in Poland. Spain's Centro de Astrobiología (CAB) supplied the wind sensors.

For more information about the mission, go to https://mars.nasa.gov/insight.

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Mission
  • InSight
Target
  • Mars
Spacecraft
  • InSight Mars Lander
Instrument
  • Heat and Physical Properties Package (HP3)
Credit
NASA/JPL-Caltech

Keep Exploring

InSight's Mole Comes to Rest

InSight's Arm Pulls Back, Revealing the Mole

Replica of InSight's Arm Practices Scraping

NASA InSight's Mole Taps the Bottom of the Lander's Scoop

InSight Prepares to Push on the Mole

Robotic Arm Pushes on a Model of the Mole

InSight's Arm Camera Stares Into the Pit

InSight's Heat Probe Partially Backs Out of Hole

Pinning Helps the Mole Move

InSight's Portrait of a Star (Brad Pitt)

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