Listening for the landing: seismic detections of perseverance's arrival at Mars with InSight
File(s)2020EA001585.pdf (1.71 MB)
Published version
OA Location
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
The entry, descent, and landing (EDL) sequence of NASA's Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover will act as a seismic source of known temporal and spatial localization. We evaluate whether the signals produced by this event will be detectable by the InSight lander (3,452 km away), comparing expected signal amplitudes to noise levels at the instrument. Modeling is undertaken to predict the propagation of the acoustic signal (purely in the atmosphere), the seismoacoustic signal (atmosphere-to-ground coupled), and the elastodynamic seismic signal (in the ground only). Our results suggest that the acoustic and seismoacoustic signals, produced by the atmospheric shock wave from the EDL, are unlikely to be detectable due to the pattern of winds in the martian atmosphere and the weak air-to-ground coupling, respectively. However, the elastodynamic seismic signal produced by the impact of the spacecraft's cruise balance masses on the surface may be detected by InSight. The upper and lower bounds on predicted ground velocity at InSight are 2.0 × 10−14 and 1.3 × 10−10 m s−1. The upper value is above the noise floor at the time of landing 40% of the time on average. The large range of possible values reflects uncertainties in the current understanding of impact-generated seismic waves and their subsequent propagation and attenuation through Mars. Uncertainty in the detectability also stems from the indeterminate instrument noise level at the time of this future event. A positive detection would be of enormous value in constraining the seismic properties of Mars, and in improving our understanding of impact-generated seismic waves.
Date Issued
2021-04
Date Acceptance
2020-02-20
Citation
Earth and Space Science, 2021, 8 (4), pp.1-21
ISSN
2333-5084
Publisher
American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Start Page
1
End Page
21
Journal / Book Title
Earth and Space Science
Volume
8
Issue
4
Copyright Statement
© 2021. The Authors. Earth and Space Science published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American Geophysical Union.
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
License URL
Sponsor
Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC)
Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC)
Identifier
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2020EA001585
Grant Number
ST/S001514/1
ST/T002026/1
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2021-03-11