Temperature and Winds for InSight (TWINS) is a

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

meteorological suite of instruments on board the ''

InSight Insight is the understanding of a specific causality, cause and effect within a particular context. The term insight can have several related meanings: *a piece of information *the act or result of understanding the inner nature of things or of se ...

'' lander that landed on

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It is also known as the "Red Planet", because of its orange-red appearance. Mars is a desert-like rocky planet with a tenuous carbon dioxide () atmosphere. At the average surface level the atmosph ...

on 26 November 2018. TWINS provides continuous wind and air temperature measurements to help understand the seismic data from the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS) instrument. The instruments were developed by the Spanish Astrobiology Center at

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

Overview

TWINS is based on the heritage from REMS ( Rover Environmental Monitoring Station) on board the ''Curiosity'' rover, with enhanced performances in terms of dynamic range and resolution.The TWINS Instrument On Board Mars Insight Mission
Velasco, Tirso, and Rodríguez-Manfredi, Jose A., EGU General Assembly 2015, held 12–17 April 2015 in Vienna, Austria. id.2571. April 2015 TWINS provides continuous wind and air temperature measurements to help understand the seismic data from the SEIS instrument. While probing the internal structure of Mars is the primary scientific goal of the ''InSight'' mission,

atmospheric science Atmospheric science is the study of the Atmosphere of Earth, Earth's atmosphere and its various inner-working physical processes. Meteorology includes atmospheric chemistry and atmospheric physics with a major focus on weather forecasting. Clima ...

remains a key science objective.Atmospheric Science with InSight
Spiga, A., Banfield, D., Teanby, N.A. et al., ''Space Science Reviews'' 2 October 2018 214:109 ''InSight'' will provide a continuous and higher-frequency record of pressure, air temperature and winds at the surface of Mars than previous ''in situ'' missions. The sensors include thermometers, and an anemometer to measure wind speed and direction twice per second. Additional sensors are the InSight FluxGate (IFG)

magnetometer A magnetometer is a device that measures magnetic field or magnetic dipole moment. Different types of magnetometers measure the direction, strength, or relative change of a magnetic field at a particular location. A compass is one such device, ...

provided by

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...

(UCLA) to measure the direction and magnitude of magnetic fields such as those caused by the Martian

ionosphere The ionosphere () is the ionized part of the upper atmosphere of Earth, from about to above sea level, a region that includes the thermosphere and parts of the mesosphere and exosphere. The ionosphere is ionized by solar radiation. It plays ...

; and a highly sensitive pressure sensor (

barometer A barometer is a scientific instrument that is used to measure air pressure in a certain environment. Pressure tendency can forecast short term changes in the weather. Many measurements of air pressure are used within surface weather analysis ...

) from

Jet Propulsion Laboratory The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a Federally funded research and development centers, federally funded research and development center (FFRDC) in La Cañada Flintridge, California, Crescenta Valley, United States. Founded in 1936 by Cali ...

(JPL). Wind, temperature, pressure and magnetometer data is used to understand the local wind behavior at the landing site to help understand and interpret SEIS data. At the same time, the lander uses its cameras to document cirrus clouds that develop high above Elysium Planitia, any instances of fog that appear along the ground, as well as

dust devil A dust devil (also known regionally as a dirt devil) is a strong, well-formed, and relatively short-lived whirlwind. Its size ranges from small (18 in/half a metre wide and a few yards/metres tall) to large (more than 30 ft/10 m ...

s.NASA InSight to give us our best look yet at Mars weather
''The Weather Network'' 22 November 2018 With this data, scientists are able to gain even greater insights into Mars' weather and climate, supplementing what was collected by previous missions, and what is currently being gathered by the ''Curiosity'' rover about 600 km to the south.

Auxiliary Payload Sensor Suite (APSS)

TWINS on InSight is part of what is called the Auxiliary Payload Sensor Suite, forming a "weather station" which components include:Operations of the SEIS Seismometer Onboard the 2016 Mars InSIght Mission
Charles Yana, Aurélie Moussi, Agnès Jullien1. SpaceOps Conferences 16–20 May 2016, Daejeon, Korea Copyright by CNES. Published by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc., with permission * TWINS: Temperature and wind sensor developed by the Spanish Astrobiology Center (CAB), Madrid, Spain * IFG: InSight FluxGate magnetometer, developed by the

University of California at Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the Ca ...

(UCLA) ay USA * PS:

Pressure sensor Pressure measurement is the measurement of an applied force by a fluid (liquid or gas) on a surface. Pressure is typically measured in units of force per unit of surface area. Many techniques have been developed for the measurement of pressur ...

developed by the TAVIS company at USA * PAE: Electronics controlling the TWINS, PS and IFG sensors developed by JPL

References

{{Insight InSight Climate of Mars Spacecraft instruments INTA spacecraft instruments

Overview

Auxiliary Payload Sensor Suite (APSS)

See also

References