NASA: After four years on Mars, InSight has completed its mission

NASA’s InSight mission has ended after more than four years of collecting unique science on Mars.

Mission controllers at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California were unable to make contact with it after two consecutive attempts, leading them to conclude that the spacecraft’s solar power batteries had run out. Unfortunately, over time, too much dust accumulated on the probe’s solar panels, to the point where the panels produced just 500Wh of energy, one-tenth of what they could produce when it landed on the Red Planet. Since then, its power levels began to gradually decrease to the point where InSight didn’t even have the power to communicate with Earth.

My power’s really low, so this may be the last image I can send. Don’t worry about me though: my time here has been both productive and serene. If I can keep talking to my mission team, I will – but I’ll be signing off here soon. Thanks for staying with me. pic.twitter.com/wkYKww15kQ

— NASA InSight (@NASAInSight) December 19, 2022

NASA had previously decided to declare the mission complete if the space robotic device missed two communication attempts. The last time InSight contacted Earth was on December 15.

“I watched the launch and landing of this mission, and while saying goodbye to a spacecraft is always sad, this exciting space mission conducted aboard InSight is cause for celebration,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. in Washington. “The seismic data from this Discovery mission alone offers enormous insights not only about Mars but also other rocky bodies, including Earth,” he added.

InSight’s goal was to begin studying the interior of Mars by reaching as deep as possible. The lander data provided details about Mars’ interior layers, the surprisingly strong subsurface remnants of its extinct magnetic dynamo, weather and also seismic activity.

Its highly sensitive seismometer, along with daily monitoring by the French space agency Center National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES) and the Marsquake service managed by ETH Zurich, detected 1,319 earthquakes, including earthquakes caused by meteorite impacts.

Such impacts help scientists determine the age of the planet’s surface while the seismometer data gives scientists a way to study the planet’s crust, mantle and core.

“With InSight, seismology was the focus of a mission beyond Earth for the first time since the Apollo missions, when astronauts brought seismometers to the Moon,” said Philippe Lognonné of the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, principal investigator of InSight’s seismometer. “We broke new ground and our scientific team can be proud of everything we learned along the way,” he concluded.

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