A Pre-Landing Assessment of Regolith Properties at the InSight Landing Site

This article discusses relevant physical properties of the regolith at the Mars InSight landing site as understood prior to landing of the spacecraft. InSight will land in the northern lowland plains of Mars, close to the equator, where the regolith is estimated to be ≥3--5 m thick. These investigations of physical properties have relied on data collected from Mars orbital measurements, previously collected lander and rover data, results of studies of data and samples from Apollo lunar missions, laboratory measurements on regolith simulants, and theoretical studies. The investigations include changes in properties with depth and temperature. Mechanical properties investigated include density, grain-size distribution, cohesion, and angle of internal friction. Thermophysical properties include thermal inertia, surface emissivity and albedo, thermal conductivity and diffusivity, and specific heat. Regolith elastic properties not only include parameters that control seismic wave velocities in the immediate vicinity of the Insight lander but also coupling of the lander and other potential noise sources to the InSight broadband seismometer. The related properties include Poisson’s ratio, P- and S-wave velocities, Young’s modulus, and seismic attenuation. Finally, mass diffusivity was investigated to estimate gas movements in the regolith driven by atmospheric pressure changes. Physical properties presented here are all to some degree speculative. However, they form a basis for interpretation of the early data to be returned from the InSight mission.Additional co-authors: Nick Teanby and Sharon Keda

Transient, radial temperature distribution in a porous medium during fluid injection

Analytical and numerical solutions are presented for the transient, radial temperature distribution in a porous medium which is subjected to a constant-rate injection of an incompressible fluid from a wellbore. The formulation includes energy transfer by conduction and convection, and the Danckwerts boundary condition is applied at the finite-radius wellbore. At late times, the numerical solutions approach a self-similar form which can be described in terms of the incomplete Gamma function. In typical petroleum and geothermal applications, convergence to the asymptotic similarity solutions occurs on a time scale of roughly one hour. The results are generally applicable to a broad range of convection-diffusion phenomena which are best described in radial coordinates

On Detecting the Shape of an Unknown Object in an Electric Field

The problem discussed in this paper is detecting the shape of an unknown object in a 2-dimensional static electric field. For simplicity, the problem is defined in a partially rectangular domain, where on a part of the boundary the potential and/or its normal derivative are known. On the other part of the boundary the boundary curve is unknown, and this curve is to be determined. The unknown part of the boundary curve describes the shape of the unknown object. The problem is defined in the complex plane by an analytic function w=f(z) = u(x,y)+iv(x,y) with the potential u as its real part. Then the inverse function is given as f^{-1}(w) = x(u,v)+iy(u,v), where the functions x and y are harmonic in a rectangle with an unknown boundary condition on one boundary. The alternating-field technique is used to solve the unknown boundary condition.acceptedVersionPeer reviewe

Redução da infestação de Brachiaria plantaginea em soja pela cobertura do solo com palha de aveia-preta Reduction of Brachiaria plantaginea infestation on soybean crop with black oat residues

Este trabalho foi conduzido em área da Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, em Eldorado do Sul, RS, em 1996/97, com o objetivo de avaliar os efeitos de resíduos de aveia-preta (Avena strigosa Schreb.) sobre o solo na densidade de papuã (Brachiaria plantaginea (Link) Hitch.) e no rendimento da cultura da soja (Glycine max L. Merrill). O experimento foi conduzido em delineamento de blocos casualizados em parcelas subdivididas, com quatro repetições; os tratamentos método de controle de papuã (nas parcelas) e cobertura do solo (nas subparcelas) foram arranjados em esquema fatorial. A densidade da planta daninha diminuiu de forma exponencial com o aumento da cobertura de aveia sobre o solo, variando de 829 a 86 plantas/m² para níveis de cobertura 0,0 t/ha e 10,5 t/ha, respectivamente. Houve maior infestação de papuã nas linhas do que nas entrelinhas da cultura. Não houve efeito da cobertura vegetal no rendimento da soja quando a cultura foi mantida livre de papuã. Por sua vez, níveis crescentes de resíduos vegetais sobre o solo controlaram papuã e aumentaram linearmente o rendimento da cultura. Nas condições de alta infestação da área, a produção de grãos aumentou na razão de 158 kg/ha de grãos por tonelada de palha sobre o solo.<br>This work was conducted at Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, in Eldorado do Sul, Rio Grande do Sul State, Brazil, during 1996/97, to evaluate the effect of black oats (Avena strigosa Schreb.) residues on alexandergrass (Brachiaria plantaginea (Link) Hitch.) density and on soybean (Glycine max L. Merrill) yield. Treatments were arranged in split-plot in a randomized complete block design with four replicates, with weed control method as main plots and level of black oat residues as subplots. An exponential reduction of alexandergrass density was observed, with data varying from 829 to 86 plants/m² for levels of straw on the soil surface of 0 to 10.5 ton/ha, respectively. Higher weed infestation occurred on the crop row than between the rows. In the weed-free treatments, soybean yield was not affected by crop residues. On the other hand, soybean yield increased linearly with increased amount of black oat residues on the soil controlling the weed. In weedy areas, soybean yield increased at the rate of 158 kg/ha for each ton of straw on the soil surface