As power supplies dwindle, the mission will cease science operations by the end of the summer, Cathia Zamora Garcia, deputy director of the InSight project at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, said during a press conference Tuesday.
InSight’s solar panels are getting covered in red Martian dust, despite creative efforts By the mission team in the field. This accumulation This will only get worse as Mars is now into winter, when more dust will be rising into the atmosphere.
These floating particles reduce the sunlight needed to charge the solar panels that power InSight, which is currently on an extended mission that is expected to last through December. The mission achieved its ultimate goal after its first two years on the surface of Mars.
The lander entered safe mode on May 7, when its energy level dropped, causing it to stop all functions except essential ones. The team anticipates that this could happen more often In the future with increased dust levels.
The stationary lander was only able to collect about a tenth of its available power supply after landing on Mars in November 2018. When it first landed, the InSight could generate about 5,000 watt-hours per day on Mars, roughly how long it would take to run. Electric oven for 1 hour 40 minutes.
Now, the probe produces 500 watts per day, which is enough to power an electric furnace for only 10 minutes. If 25% of the solar panels are cleaned, InSight will see a considerable energy boost for the continuation. The spaceship has seen many dust demons, or whirlwinds, but Neither of them are close enough to remove the solar panels.
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“We hope to clean up the dust as we’ve seen it happen several times for the Spirit and Opportunity spacecraft,” said Bruce Banerdt, InSight principal investigator at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “It’s still possible, but the energy is low enough that our focus is on maximizing the knowledge we can still gather.”
The spaceship’s robotic arm will soon be put into “retired” mode.
In late summer, the team will turn off the seismometers, stop scientific operations, and monitor the remaining energy levels on the probe. At the end of the year, the InSight mission will end.
However, the InSight team will continue to listen for any potential communications from the spacecraft and determine if it can be revived.
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“The InSight mission has been a truly extraordinary mission for us,” Laurie Glaese, director of NASA’s Division of Planetary Sciences, said during a press conference. “And it gave us a glimpse of Mars that we couldn’t get from any other spacecraft in NASA’s Mars fleet. Interpreting InSight data has advanced our understanding of how rocky planets form throughout the universe.”
“Even as we near the end of our mission, Mars still gives us some pretty amazing things to see,” Banerdt said.
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Martian earthquakes are similar to the earthquakes we see on Earth, but they differ slightly in terms of why they occur on each planet. Down to earth, that’s lately The event would be a moderate-sized earthquake – but it would set a new record for seismic activity discovered by scientists studying Mars.
When we feel an earthquake, it is because the tectonic plates on Earth move and move and rub against each other. So far, Earth is the only planet known to have these plates.
So how do earthquakes happen on Mars? Think of Mars’ crust as one giant plate. This crust has cracks and fissures in it because the planet continues to shrink as it cools. This contraction This compresses, stretches, and breaks the Martian crust.
When swamp seismic waves travel through different materials inside Mars, they allow scientists to study the planet’s structure. Activity analysis helps them understand Mars’ mysterious interior and apply this research to study how other rocky planets, including ours, formed.
Using InSight, said Bannerdt, scientists have been able to map the interior of Mars for the first time in history.
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The science team at InSight is continuing to analyze the quake to better understand its origin, source and what it might reveal about the Red Planet.
The constant stream of data to scientists on Earth from InSight will stop when the solar cells can’t generate enough power. But researchers will study the discoveries InSight has made over the coming decades to learn as much as they can about our mysterious planetary neighbour.
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