Mission controllers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) near Los Angeles on Thursday (12/22), decided to terminate the InSight Mars mission after failing to make radio contact with devices there.
The failure was presumably a sign that the solar-powered battery used to power InSight had run out of energy.
Uploaded ReutersNASA estimates that since late October the amount of dust that has accumulated on the solar panels has hampered the battery’s ability to recharge its energy.
Just in case, NASA says JPL engineers will continue to listen for signals from the lander, but they’re unlikely to hear InSight again.
Because the three-legged stationary probe last communicated with Earth on December 15th.
InSight landed on Mars in late November 2018 with instruments designed to detect the planet’s seismic rumble that had never been measured anywhere other than Earth.
Initially the InSight mission was to be flown for only two years, then it was extended to four years.
