Just a few weeks from now, the German Aerospace Center's HP3 Mole will start hammering its way automatically into the subsoil of the Red Planet to measure its inner heat.

"By participating in the InSight mission, Germany is making a major contribution to expanding our knowledge of the Red Planet," emphasises Pascale Ehrenfreund, Chair of the DLR Executive Board.

"The HP3 experiment is an innovation in the exploration of our neighbouring planet - both scientifically and technologically. It is a view beyond the next horizon."

The HP3 experiment landed on Mars with NASA's InSight space probe on 26 November 2018 at 20:52:59 Central European Time. The geophysical observatory travelled almost 500 million kilometres before settling gently on the Elysium Planitia plains just north of the Martian equator.

"We are delighted that a DLR experiment is now present on Mars for the first time and that we can make a significant contribution to this hitherto unparalleled exploration of the Red Planet's interior, which is certain to go down in aerospace history," says Hansjoerg Dittus, DLR Executive Board Member for Space Research and Technology after observing the landing from Pasadena, California.

Thomas Jarzombek, German Federal Government Coordinator for Aerospace, is also extremely pleased: "I congratulate the project managers on the successful landing on Mars. The InSight mission demonstrates the achievements of international cooperation in space research. Germany has made a key contribution to the HP3 experiment, which is proof of DLR's outstanding and internationally recognised expertise.

"In addition, Germany is providing additional contributions to the mission as part of the National Programme for Space and Innovation of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy. All in all, this is proof of the German Government's successful support to science and technology."

The InSight mission was launched from Vandenberg in California on 5 May 2018. Hurtling into the Martian atmosphere at a speed of 19,800 kilometres per hour, it was slowed down to a landing velocity of just eight kilometres per hour in less than seven minutes. Its three legs finally came to rest on Martian soil at 20:52:59 CET.

"We are very excited about the upcoming analysis of the landing craft's environment. Once that it complete, we will select the ideal place to position the instruments with our US colleagues," says Tilman Spohn, Principal Investigator of the HP3 experiment from the DLR Institute of Planetary Research in Berlin. "Our research will begin then."

A Robot Arm Will Place the Martian 'Mole' in January

Once InSight has delivered the first images of the area around the landing site, the next step will be to produce a 3D model of the surface. Researchers will then use this model to decide where - within a radius of one-and-a-half metres - the robot arm should deposit the Mars mole HP3.

This will take place in early January. Release of the Mars seismometer SEIS (Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure) is already scheduled for December. DLR is also involved in this experiment, which was built by an international consortium led by the French space agency CNES.

"An ideal location for our Mars mole would be one that is as sandy as possible and does not contain any rocks," says HP3 operations manager Christian Krause from the DLR Microgravity User Support Center (MUSC), who will teleoperate the Mole together with his colleagues, initially in the control room at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California and later at the control centre in Cologne.

"The Mole will burrow its way in small increments to a depth of up to five metres, dragging a tether equipped with highly accurate temperature sensors. The Mole will take a break every 50 centimetres to measure the thermal conductivity of the Martian soil.

"In total, the temperature sensors should deliver data on the temperature gradient in the subsoil for two years. Scientists will then use this data and the thermal conductivity to calculate how much heat the interior of Mars is still emitting today."Our plan is to use these measurements to determine the temperature of Mars' interior and to characterise the current geological activity beneath its crust," explains Spohn.

"In addition, we want to find out how the interior of Mars developed, whether it still possesses a hot molten core and what makes Earth so special by comparison."

At present, researchers only have imprecise knowledge of how Mars is structured into a core, mantle and crust, their individual properties and why the dynamism of its inner development diminished so quickly compared to Earth.

Related Links
DLR InSight Mission
Mars News and Information at MarsDaily.com
Lunar Dreams and more

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NASA's InSight Lander Arrives on Martian Surface
Pasadena CA (JPL) Nov 26, 2018
Mars has just received its newest robotic resident. NASA's Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport lander successfully touched down on the Red Planet after an almost seven-month, 300-million-mile (458-million-kilometer) journey from Earth. InSight's two-year mission will be to study the deep interior of Mars to learn how all celestial bodies with rocky surfaces, including Earth and the Moon, formed. InSight launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in Cali ... read more