Four years after reaching the surface of the Red Planet, the US Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has officially announced the retirement of the Mars probe (InSight), the first robotic probe designed specifically to study the deep interiors of a distant world.
Mission control officials at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, located near Los Angeles, determined that the mission ended after two successive attempts to restore radio contact with the spacecraft failed, evidence that the solar-powered batteries of Insight were low.
And NASA predicted in late October that the spacecraft would reach the end of its operational life within weeks due to heavy and growing dust accumulations on its solar arrays, robbing its batteries of the ability to recharge.
NASA said JPL engineers will continue listening for a new signal from the spacecraft, but it’s unlikely to hear anything from Insight again. The three-legged spacecraft last made contact with Earth on December 15.
InSight landed on Mars in late November 2018 equipped with instruments designed to detect earthquake noises on the planet that hadn’t been measured before anywhere else but on Earth. His term was later extended from two to four years.
From its location on a large, relatively flat plain just north of the planet’s equator, InSight has helped scientists gain a new understanding of Mars’ internal structure.
The researchers said their data revealed the thickness of the planet’s outer crust, the size and density of its inner core, and the structure of the mantle that lies in between.
One of Insight’s major achievements has been demonstrating that the Red Planet is seismically active, with more than 1,300 earthquakes recorded. It also measured the seismic waves resulting from colliding meteorites.
“The seismic data from this Discovery Program mission alone provides extraordinary information not only about Mars but also about other rocky bodies, including Earth,” said Thomas Zurbuken, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate.
Another robotic visitor to the Red Planet is NASA’s Perseverance science rover, which was sent after InSight. And that rover continues to prepare a collection of Martian mineral samples for future analysis on Earth.
