Searching the Resource Information Network

Our searching services are busy right now. Please try again later

  • Register
X
Forgot Password

If you have forgotten your password you can enter your email here and get a temporary password sent to your email.

X

Leaving Community

Are you sure you want to leave this community? Leaving the community will revoke any permissions you have been granted in this community.

No
Yes

Geology of the InSight landing site on Mars.

M Golombek | N H Warner | J A Grant | E Hauber | V Ansan | C M Weitz | N Williams | C Charalambous | S A Wilson | A DeMott | M Kopp | H Lethcoe-Wilson | L Berger | R Hausmann | E Marteau | C Vrettos | A Trussell | W Folkner | S Le Maistre | N Mueller | M Grott | T Spohn | S Piqueux | E Millour | F Forget | I Daubar | N Murdoch | P Lognonné | C Perrin | S Rodriguez | W T Pike | T Parker | J Maki | H Abarca | R Deen | J Hall | P Andres | N Ruoff | F Calef | S Smrekar | M M Baker | M Banks | A Spiga | D Banfield | J Garvin | C E Newman | W B Banerdt
Nature communications | 2020

The Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) spacecraft landed successfully on Mars and imaged the surface to characterize the surficial geology. Here we report on the geology and subsurface structure of the landing site to aid in situ geophysical investigations. InSight landed in a degraded impact crater in Elysium Planitia on a smooth sandy, granule- and pebble-rich surface with few rocks. Superposed impact craters are common and eolian bedforms are sparse. During landing, pulsed retrorockets modified the surface to reveal a near surface stratigraphy of surficial dust, over thin unconsolidated sand, underlain by a variable thickness duricrust, with poorly sorted, unconsolidated sand with rocks beneath. Impact, eolian, and mass wasting processes have dominantly modified the surface. Surface observations are consistent with expectations made from remote sensing data prior to landing indicating a surface composed of an impact-fragmented regolith overlying basaltic lava flows.

Pubmed ID: 32094337

Research resources used in this publication

None found

Additional research tools detected in this publication

Antibodies used in this publication

None found

Associated grants

None

Publication data is provided by the National Library of Medicine ® and PubMed ®. Data is retrieved from PubMed ® on a weekly schedule. For terms and conditions see the National Library of Medicine Terms and Conditions.

This is a list of tools and resources that we have found mentioned in this publication.


MATLAB (tool)

RRID:SCR_001622

Multi paradigm numerical computing environment and fourth generation programming language developed by MathWorks. Allows matrix manipulations, plotting of functions and data, implementation of algorithms, creation of user interfaces, and interfacing with programs written in other languages, including C, C++, Java, Fortran and Python. Used to explore and visualize ideas and collaborate across disciplines including signal and image processing, communications, control systems, and computational finance.

View all literature mentions