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Rock Size-frequency Distributions of the InSight Landing Site, Mars
  • +9
  • Matthew P. Golombek,
  • Allyson R. Trussell,
  • Nathan Robert Williams,
  • Constantinos Charalambous,
  • Hallie Abarca,
  • Nicholas Hale Warner,
  • Margaret Deahn,
  • Marshall R. Trautman,
  • Bob Crocco,
  • John A. Grant,
  • Ernst Hauber,
  • Robert G Deen
Matthew P. Golombek
California Institute of Technology/JPL, California Institute of Technology/JPL

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Allyson R. Trussell
California Institute of Technology, California Institute of Technology
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Nathan Robert Williams
Jet Propulsion Lab, Jet Propulsion Lab
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Constantinos Charalambous
Imperial College London, Imperial College London
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Hallie Abarca
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
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Nicholas Hale Warner
SUNY Geneseo, SUNY Geneseo
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Margaret Deahn
SUNY Geneseo, SUNY Geneseo
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Marshall R. Trautman
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Caltech, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Caltech
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Bob Crocco
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Caltech, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Caltech
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John A. Grant
Smithsonian Institution, Smithsonian Institution
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Ernst Hauber
DLR, DLR
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Robert G Deen
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
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Abstract

Rocks around the InSight lander were measured in lander orthoimages of the near field (<10 m), in panoramas of the far field (<40 m), and in a high-resolution orbital image around the lander (1 km2). The cumulative fractional area versus diameter size-frequency distributions for four areas in the near field fall on exponential model curves used for estimating hazards for landing spacecraft. The rock abundance varies in the near field from 0.6% for the sand and pebble rich area to the east within Homestead hollow, to ~3-5% for the progressively rockier areas to the south, north and west. The rock abundance of the entire near field is just over 3%, which falls between that at the Phoenix (2%) and Spirit (5%) landing sites. Rocks in the far field (<40 m) that could be identified in both the surface panorama and a high-resolution orbital image fall on the same exponential model curve as the average near field rocks. Rocks measured in a high-resolution orbital image (27.5 cm/pixel) within ~500 m of the lander that includes several rocky ejecta craters fall on 4-5% exponential model curves, similar to the northern and western near field areas. As a result, the rock abundances observed from orbit falls on the same exponential model rock abundance curves as those viewed from the surface. These rock abundance measurements around the lander are consistent with thermal imaging estimates over larger pixel areas as well as expectations from fragmentation theory of an impacted Amazonian/Hesperian lava flow.
Dec 2021Published in Earth and Space Science volume 8 issue 12. 10.1029/2021EA001959