NASA’s InSight Lander Nearly Runs Out of Energy on Mars

NASA’s InSight lander loses energy as dust builds up on its solar panels.

REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, KALIFORNIA – Pendarat InSight The American Space Agency’s (NASA) Mars will no longer be able to function in a few months. This is because dust continues to accumulate on the solar panels.

This incident left InSight short of energy. NASA reported this on Tuesday (17/5/2022).

InSight was launched from Earth in 2018. The six-meter-wide machine mission was sent to study the Red Planet beneath its surface. The InSight is armed with a variety of instruments, including a robotic arm, seismometer and ground temperature sensor.

Astronomers think the data will help them understand how the cores of rocky planets in the Solar System formed and evolved over time.

“InSight has changed our understanding of rocky planet interiors and set the stage for future missions,” Lori Glaze, director of NASA’s Division of Planetary Sciences, said in a statement. The Register, Wednesday (18/5/2022).

The mission didn’t go according to plan. The spacecraft was designed to attach its fancy heat probe five meters into the Martian regolith to measure the planet’s temperature.

Unfortunately, the mission never made it that far, as the soil was too loose to compact around the equipment and provide enough resistance to dig.

However, Glaze says InSight has collected valuable data for science. “Mission Insight has been a really great mission for us,” Glaze said at the briefing.

“It gives us a glimpse of Mars that we can’t get from other spacecraft in the fleet NASA Our Mars. Interpreting the InSight data really expands our understanding of how rocky planets form throughout the universe. “This not only tells us information about Mars, but broadens our understanding of planetary science and helps us think differently about other rocky planets in the Solar System, and beyond.”

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