The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's HiRISE imaging system captured a look at the dust-covered InSight mission on Mars.
The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's HiRISE imager captured this view of dust-covered InSight lander on Mars. Courtesy: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona
The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment onboard MRO monitors and images the surface. In particular, it has been imaging landing sites on Mars to track dust accumulation on the surface. The idea is to see how quickly the landers and their nearby environments get covered. It doesn’t just focus on landing sites, though. It also checks places like impact craters to track surface changes in and around those regions.
Why care about dust? Although we know a great deal about Mars, there’s still a lot to figure out. Wind deposition of dust is part of the so-called aeolian processes that alter the Martian surface appearance. They’re named after the Greek wind god Aeolus. Dust storms are certainly visible on Mars from Earth, but we can’t really “see” their deposits easily without getting close to the planet. Other activities, such as dust devils, also redistribute dust around the planet.
The InSight lander not only measured seismic motions on Mars, but also sampled the atmosphere and listened to its winds. Courtesy: NASA/JPL.
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