MArs Geophysical InSight – MAGIS
MArs Geophysical InSight (MAGIS): The first geophysical observatory on Mars
InSight is the first mission ever sent to an extra-terrestrial body (Mars) to enable the breakthroughs obtained on Earth after the 1889 first quake observation made by von Reuber-Pacshwitz which leads to the discovery of the Moho and core mantle boundary respectively by Mohorovicic, in 1910 and Oldham, in 1906. Its goal: just performing the first step of surface geophysics on the Red Planet with SEIS, the higly sensitive seismometer of the mission.
Discovering Mars with InSight SEISmometer and Weather sensors and their long-term and continuous geophysical and meteorological monitoring of the red planet.
The InSight mission (Interior Exploration Using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy, and Heat Transport, http://insight.jpl.nasa.gov) landed successfully on Mars on November 26, 2018. Its seismometer and atmospheric sensors suite are fully operational and proved performances much better than the mission requirements. <br />InSight will illuminate the fundamental processes of terrestrial-planet formation and evolution by performing the first comprehensive surface-based geophysical investigation of Mars. It will provide key information on the composition and structure of an Earth-like planet that has gone through most of the evolutionary stages of the Earth up to, but not including, plate tectonics. Thus, the clues of early history of terrestrial planet formation are still contained in the basic parameters of Mars: core’s size, state and composition, composition and layering of the mantle, crust thickness and layering and internal heat flux.<br />InSight will delineate these parameters and will solve the associated high-level science question:<br />- What are the core radius , crust and lithosphere thicknesses, shape of the mantle transition zone, temperature and composition mantle profiles, composition of the core?<br />- What is the present impact rate on Mars, durations of the strong and weak shock wave regime, propagation of impact generated air coupled shock waves? Do we have active tectonic areas on Mars ?<br />-How could seismic measurements complement atmospheric measurements to characterize the turbulence and wave spectrum? How to characterize the seismic noise induced by atmospheric dynamics at all scales? Could the seismic signatures induced by the atmosphere be used to explore the near-surface and interior of the planet?
Because of the quasi-absence of knowledge on Mars' seismology and surface geophysics, the science objectives of MAGIS are broad and very fundamental, addressing overarching questions of Planetary Science and Geophysics by r transdisciplinary research approaches. We will not only cover the science explored by the French-built Very-Broad-Band (VBB) seismometer of SEIS, but also those made possible by joint VBB-APSS analysis, as one of the MAGIS team is associated to APSS, which operations are furthermore made by CNES. The SEIS VBB sensors are so sensitive they will detect the large quakes enabling the access to the deep internal structure of Mars, the smaller quakes related to tectonic activity and impacts on the Martian surface, and the ground deformations and micro-seismic noise associated with atmospheric activities, from global-scale circulations to turbulence and infrasounds in the Atmospheric Boundary Layer.
The research project will be parformed through 6 Work Pakage. The scientific goals of these are related to Mars interior imaging (WP1), Mars mineralogy and evolution (WP3), Mars seismo-tectonic and impacts processes (WP4) and atmosphere/interior seismic coupling and Mars’ atmospheric dynamics (WP5). In parallel, and because of the expected challenge in the data analysis, we will develop specific and innovative data processing algorithm (WP2) to extract the seismic informations from the InSight data, including by using for the seismic data both the onboard capability of the lander and Earth-based data processing, including on Earth with machine learning.
Last but not least, the WP6 will benefit from the InSight-SEIS partnership with the French and several international seismometer at school programs, and will be related to the development of new educational approach in physical sciences and their efficiency in terms of student motivations .
As of June 30, 2021, the results of InSight and Magis are as follows:
• Measurement at the end of the evening of the least noisy seismic recordings in the history of seismology and characterization of the micro-seismic noise of Mars
• First inversion of the structure of the subsurface of Mars thanks to the seismic recordings of atmospheric vortices
• Identification of a weathered upper crust, 10 km thick, characterized by low seismic speeds
• first comparative analyzes of the effects of diffraction and attenuation on seismic waves in three different crusts, Earth, Mars and Moon
• More than 600 earthquakes detected including around sixty magnitude between 2.5 and 3.5 located at distances between 1000 and 3000 km
• Discovery of regional seismicity in Cerberus Fossaé
• Discovery of atmospheric gravity waves and first characterization of atmospheric dynamics in the Martian tropics
Summer 2021: First complete models of internal structure of Mars
2021-2022: Extended mission of the mission
2024: Launch and operation of the Farside Seismic Suite mission, based on the re-use of one of InSight's spare VBB sensors for the first installation of a seismology station by NASA on the far side of the Moon
• 28 scientific articles detailing the results in 2020,
•> 18 scientific articles in 2021.
See these articles on the project link: www.seis-insight.eu/fr/science/publication-sci/articles-archives
The NASA InSight mission will perform the first comprehensive surface-based geophysical investigation of Mars after its succesfull landing, in 11/2018. It will provide seismic data constraining the size and state of the core, the layering of the mantle, the thickness and layering of the crust, as well as records of seismic signals generated by impacts and by the Martian boundary layer activity. The core instrument is an ultra-sensitive, very-broad-band seismometer under French PIship, completed by a full weather station with the most sensitive pressure sensor never deployed on Mars. MAGIS will strengthen the French contribution to InSight science analysis and is focused on six objectives: Mars Interior, Data analysis, mineralogy and geodynamic interpretation, seismic source physics, Atmosphere/Interior seismic coupling and development of new educational approach in physical sciences. For the five first goals, it will support postdocs and PhDs in the French laboratories, while for the last, it will be focused on review of the seismic at school program and development of a virtual reality educational tool.
While most of the scientific objectives associated with the deep structure of Mars will require the detection of quakes or impacts, expected at a rate of about ten per year, the first observations made by the mission have highlighted micro-seisms. a seismic noise detected thanks to the excellent performance of the VBB sensor.s This micro-seismic noise will allow in the coming months to determine the structure of the subsurface, and then, with stacks growing longer and longer the structure of the upper crust. In the longer term, the detection of the Martian hum (excitation of the Mars free oscillations) and the characterization of the tide of Phobos will make it possible to constrain the deep structures, upper mantle or even core-mantle boundary with the tide. The micro-seismic noise gives us in addition new and original information on the atmospheric boundary layer activity
With these noise analyzes or with future seismic event analyzes, SEIS will thus constrain the internal structure of Mars. Coupled with laboratory experiments and modeling of the current thermal state of the planet, it will then be possible to determine the mineralogical and thermal structure of the planet, and to better constrain the history of the planet and the one of Mars planetary habitability
Project coordination
Philippe Lognonne (Institut de physique du globe de Paris)
The author of this summary is the project coordinator, who is responsible for the content of this summary. The ANR declines any responsibility as for its contents.
Partner
LANL Los Alamos National Laboratory
ISAE-Supaero Institut Supérieur de l'Aéronautique et de l'Espace
JPL California Institut of Technology / Jet Propulsion Laboratory
IPGP Institut de physique du globe de Paris
LPG LABORATOIRE DE PLANETOLOGIE ET GEODYNAMIQUE
LAGRANGE (OCA-CNRS-UNS) Laboratoire J-L. Lagrange
IMPMC Institut de Minéralogie, de Physique des Matériaux et de Cosmochimie
LGL-TPE Laboratoire de géologie de Lyon : Terre, planètes et environnement
IRAP Institut de recherche en astrophysique et planétologie
LMD Laboratoire de météorologie dynamique
Help of the ANR 864,551 euros
Beginning and duration of the scientific project:
September 2019
- 48 Months
