InSight's Final Selfie(jpl.nasa.gov) |
InSight's Final Selfie(jpl.nasa.gov) |
The wikipedia article for TIFF [1] actually has a "digital preservation" section but just says it's _possible_ to create a TIFF image without proprietary headers or compression technologies, which doesn't sound to be that relevant nor impossible to achieve with other formats.
EDIT: nevermind, this might be the reason: "The inclusion of the SampleFormat tag in TIFF 6.0 allows TIFF files to handle advanced pixel data types, including integer images with more than 8 bits per channel and floating point images. This tag made TIFF 6.0 a viable format for scientific image processing where extended precision is required. An example would be the use of TIFF to store images acquired using scientific CCD cameras that provide up to 16 bits per photosite of intensity resolution."
Is this really only possible with TIFF? Or is it just because it's what they've used in the 90s, and since it's still viable now, they might as well keep using it for consistency?
It costs money to operate these probes with a whole staff here on earth monitoring, commanding and analyzing the data that we receive. After some time you get diminishing returns on how much you can learn from the same probe, and would be better off paying these people to work on a new probe (improved using what you have learned) or even an identical probe, deployed elsewhere on the planet.
When these missions are designed that is taken into consideration to determine the desired lifespan of the mission, and the probe is designed to that lifespan (with some margin). Spending money (or worse mass) to make a component survive well beyond that lifespan would be a waste, and could cut into the (fiscal or mass) budget resulting in tradeoffs that make the probe less capable during the lifespan it has.
Insight was designed to operate for at least two years with margin. It has hit the limits of that margin after four years and it's time to shut it down.
The rovers can position themselves such that wind removes dust.
There are so many things that seem like they would work but I know it's only because I don't understand the tradeoffs. In space tech, everything comes with a catch.
https://news.mit.edu/2022/solar-panels-dust-magnets-0311
EDIT: sorry this is a repeat link
And, as mentioned, you don't want the helicopter flying anywhere near the rover for fear it would collide and damage the rover.
Also, not really ironically, the helicopter's own solar panels (which sit above the rotor blades) are collecting dust, and that plus the lower sunlight during this part of the Martian year have significantly reduced power levels. They have had to implement measures to reduce power consumption, which will reduce the operating life of the internal batteries. It is possible we won't see any more flights, not sure yet.
I assume there are also worries about letting the helicopter fly near it, in case of damage
The Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) mission is a robotic lander designed to study the deep interior of the planet Mars. It was manufactured by Lockheed Martin Space Systems, is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), and most of its scientific instruments were built by European agencies. The mission launched on 5 May 2018 at 11:05:01 UTC aboard an Atlas V-401 launch vehicle and successfully landed at Elysium Planitia on Mars on 26 November 2018 at 19:52:59 UTC. InSight traveled 483×106 km (300×106 mi) during its journey. As of 25 May 2022, InSight has been active on Mars for 1242 sols (1276 days; 3 years, 180 days).
InSight's objectives are to place a seismometer, called Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS), on the surface of Mars to measure seismic activity and provide accurate 3D models of the planet's interior; and measure internal heat transfer using a heat probe called HP3 to study Mars' early geological evolution. This could bring a new understanding of how the Solar System's terrestrial planets – Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars – and Earth's Moon form and evolve.
The lander was originally planned for launch in March 2016. An instrument problem delayed the launch beyond the 2016 launch window. NASA officials rescheduled the InSight launch to May 2018 and during the wait the instrument was repaired. This increased the total cost from US$675 million to US$830 million. NASA stated that due to excessive dust on its solar panels preventing it from recharging, they plan to put InSight in low-power mode for detecting seisemic events in July 2022 and continue monitoring the lander through the operational period ending in December 2022.
I think there have been six quakes large enough to determine the location, i.e. a distance and azimuth. There have been hundreds of smaller quakes where they determine seismicity patterns, but not location.
Also one of its goals was to drill a 10ft shaft with a heat probe to study subsurface temperatures, but this drilling operation did not succeed given the soil composition was different than expected.
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/nasa-insight-s-mole-ends-it...
(Not sure I'd want to deploy a system that intentionally litters single use plastics onto pristine planets though. We're already the species who spent way too long tossing old-fashioned non-biodegradable styrofoam cheeseburger containers out of 1967 Cadillac Eldorado Convertibles with whale-skin hubcaps getting 1mpg doing 110mph down the freeway...)
<tin foil hat>And after all, they left the Pyramids and Stonehenge behind here, right???