NASA ends its Insight mission on the surface of Mars

Dec. 21 () –

NASA’s InSight mission has ended after more than four years of collecting unique scientific data on the surface of Mars, the space agency announced on December 21. it’s a statement.

Mission controllers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) were unable to contact the lander after two consecutive attempts, leading them to conclude that the spacecraft’s solar-powered batteries spacecraft have run out of power, due to the dust that accumulates in its solar panels and that prevents its recharging.

Rest easy, little lander? @NASAInSight‘s mission has ended after more than four years of detecting marsquakes, meteoroid impacts, and unique science on Mars. Congratulations – and thank you – to the team that made these pioneering discoveries possible. https://t.co/MCRzWYFSMd pic.twitter.com/GJkVI88CWi

— NASA JPL (@NASAJPL) December 21, 2022

NASA had previously decided to declare the mission over if the lander missed two communication attempts. The agency will still listen for a signal from the lander, just in case, but this is considered unlikely. The last time InSight communicated with Earth was December 15.

InSight (Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport), arrived on Mars on November 26, 2018 after almost seven months of travel with the aim of studying the deep interior of Mars. Data from the lander has provided details about the inner layers of Mars, the surprisingly strong subsurface remnants of its defunct magnetic dynamo, the weather on this part of Mars, and plenty of seismic activity.

MORE THAN 1,300 EARTHQUAKES

Its highly sensitive seismometer, together with daily monitoring by the French space agency Center National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES) and the Marsquake Service managed by ETH Zurich, detected 1,319 earthquakesincluding those caused by meteoroid impacts, the largest of which unearthed boulder-sized chunks of ice at the end of last year.

These impacts help scientists determine the age of the planet’s surface.and the seismometer data provides scientists with a way to study the planet’s crust, mantle, and core.

The seismometer was the last scientific instrument that remained on as dust accumulated on the lander’s solar arrays gradually reduced their power, a process that began before NASA expanded the mission earlier this year.

The lander also featured a self-hammering nose, nicknamed “the mole”, I had to dig 5 meters deeptrailing a wire laden with sensors that would measure the planet’s heat and allow scientists to calculate how much energy was left from the formation of Mars.

Designed for the loose, sandy soil of other missions, the mole was unable to gain traction in the unexpected lumpy soil surrounding InSight. The instrument, provided by the German Aerospace Center (DLR), ended up burying its 40-centimeter probe slightly below the surface, collecting valuable data on the physical and thermal properties of the Martian soil along the way. This data is useful for future human or robotic missions attempting to dig underground.

The mission buried the mole as far as possible thanks to engineers at JPL and DLR using the lander’s robotic arm in ingenious ways. Primarily intended for placing scientific instruments on the Martian surface, the arm and its small blade also helped remove dust from InSight’s solar arrays when power began to wane. Counterintuitively, the mission determined that they could dust dirt from the shovel onto the panels on windy days, allowing the falling granules to gently sweep the dust off the panels.

For his part, the Center for Astrobiology (CAB) of Spain supplied the temperature and wind sensors which provided new information on Martian meteorology.