NASA’s InSight geological probe on Mars has run out of power. The device didn’t log into ground control over the weekend, so its latest photo was posted to Twitter on Monday along with a short farewell message.
In early November, InSight’s solar arrays were completely covered in sand from a storm. The efficiency of the solar panels had already been severely limited by the dust, but by then it was already known that the device had run out of energy source and would probably become unusable within a few weeks.
My power is very low so this may be the last picture I can send. Don’t worry about me though: my time here has been both productive and serene. If I can continue to talk to my team about the mission, I will, but I will be stepping down soon. Thanks for staying with me. pic.twitter.com/wkYKww15kQ
— NASA InSight (@NASAInSight) December 19, 2022
The device was given the name InSight, meaning intuition – or rather sight – at the start of the project, in 2012, instead of Geophysical Observation Station, which perfectly describes its function. The task of seismological, geodetic and thermal conduction measurements already falls within the new, concise acronym. The main goal was to get to know the interior of Mars.
InSight launched from Earth in May 2018 and arrived on the red planet, Elysium Planitia, in November. The 358-kilogram structure cost a total of about 850 million dollars. Its operating time was projected to be two years, but it exceeded the plan by a modest hundred percent and was worth the four years.
During its lifetime, the spacecraft detected about 1,300 Martian earthquakes, the strongest of which occurred in May this year. He also detected the propagation of seismic waves and the energy of striking meteors to reveal and lookt extend into the interior of the planet.
Thanks to InSight data, we also know that Mars has a larger-than-expected core of iron, nickel and sulfur surrounded by a silicate mantle, and the planet’s crust is 50 kilometers thicker than Earth’s.
It no longer receives light
However, Mars is not a kind world. Due to dust covering everything, the solar panels were only operating at 20 percent capacity this summer, so the check shut down all instruments except the priority seismometer. During the last thunderstorm, the latter was also turned off, and was only turned on again when it was already known that the song was over and they were running on their last charge.
The 30-person team considers the mission complete only if InSight misses two check-ins with the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which transmits its data. This just happened. The NASA antenna network continues to monitor the channel of the spacecraft in case it shakes and you reliveand.
(Ars Technique, cnet, NASA, space. com)
