InsightSeers STM Attendance

Over the week of March 20th 2023, doctoral candidates Ethan Finch and Dan Hallatt attended the final Science Team Meeting (STM 26) of the InSight lander mission to Mars. For nearly four (Earth) years on Mars’ Elysium Planitia region, the InSight lander studied a range of topics including seismology, magnetometry, regolith thermal and physical properties, atmospheric science, and images of the surface. From this data, the InSight mission has clarified Mars’ internal structure and constrained its level of tectonic and impact activity, along with making many other ground-breaking insights. STM 26 was the final meeting of the mission, as the lander retired on December 21st, 2022 after having its solar panels covered in a fatal amount of Martian dust [https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/mission/].

As postgraduate students,  Ethan and Dan were accepted into the InSightSeers program, a program affording a select number of participants the opportunity to sit in on the week-long science meeting and to get to know the participating scientists. The meeting was held at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama (USA). The two gained invaluable experience in a broad variety of topics, from planetary seismology and thermal sciences to space mission planning and operations. Thanks to UKspace who sponsored Dan’s attendance.