Thermal model of InSight solar panels in Martian conditions

InSight is a NASA mission designed to explore inner Mars and measure its seismology, heat flow, and reflexes. Apart from that, the thermal environment study is an essential mission objective. InSight landed on 26 November 2018 on Mars. As a power source, InSight has two solar panels and auxiliary sensors that monitor the solar panel temperature. A thermal model has been developed for InSight's solar panels. This model uses the energy balance approach to analyze the heat transfer processes, identify the heat transfer interactions, and determine the thermal effects of the solar panels in its Martian surroundings during a sol. In addition, the model uses Mars Climate Database (MCD) to complement input and in-situ data of the InSight solar panel to validate the results. The results show that the solar panel interacts with its Martian local surroundings, both the Martian air and the ground. Thus, these interactions might be a disturbing factor in temperature measurements. This fact should be studied more in-depth in future work.

Automated summary

InSight is a NASA mission that aims to explore the inner Mars and measure its seismology, heat flow, and reflexes. In addition, studying the thermal environment is a crucial objective of this mission. InSight successfully landed on Mars on November 26, 2018. Equipped with two solar panels and auxiliary sensors, InSight's thermal model uses the energy balance approach to analyze heat transfer processes and interactions with the Martian surroundings, with validation using the Mars Climate Database (MCD).