Update: NASA confirmed this shortly after this article was published Unable to contact the Mars InSight lander (opens in new tab) completed a four-year mission on the planet’s surface in two consecutive attempts.
Twilight approaches on NASA’s Mars InSight lander – a robotic seismology laboratory that has been studying the Red Planet’s inner workings since November 2018.
On Tuesday (December 20), NASA a statement (opens in new tab) InSight was unable to respond to normal communications from Earth. This is an alarming, but not surprising, sign that InSight may eventually die after its power supply dwindles.
“My power is really low, so this might be the last picture I can send,” the official said The InSight Twitter account (opens in new tab) he tweeted in December. Along with 19 dust-covered selfies. “But don’t worry about me: my time here has been both productive and quiet. If I can keep talking to my mission team, I will, but I’ll be leaving soon. Thanks for staying with me.”
The solar panels that InSight relies on for power have been continuously washed away by dust and dirt over the past four years, gradually depleting the available energy. Things were so dire this summer that NASA turned off all of InSight’s science instruments except the seismometer so the ailing lander could focus as long as possible on its primary mission—listening for Martian earthquakes.
NASA will officially declare the InSight mission over if the lander fails to respond to a second consecutive communication session. After that, an operations team of 25 to 30 people will wrap up the mission by making sure four years of InSight data are properly stored and available for use by researchers around the world.
InSight touched down in November on Mars’ Elysium Planitia – the flat, volcanically active plain that surrounds the Martian equator. 26, 2018. Using a robotic arm, the lander placed a small seismometer (a device used to measure seismic waves caused by earthquakes and impacts) on the plain, then covered it with a dome-shaped heat and wind shield. Since then, InSight has detected more than 1,300 earthquakes, including the largest. 4.7 magnitude aftershock on May 4, 2022🇧🇷
The study of these seismic data has already helped scientists A map of the mysterious interior of Marsfind out the most massive meteor impact ever recorded It suggests that there may be volcanic activity in the solar system and on the Red Planet leading to a hidden source of liquid water🇧🇷
With four years of data already porous, scientists around the world will likely use InSight’s data to unravel the mysteries of Mars for years to come. Goodbye, sweet robot.
