The InSight lander will be silent soon. All because of the dust

After four years of exploring the surface of Mars, InSight must “retire”. NASA issued a message saying goodbye to the lander and explaining the reasons that led to the discontinuation of work.

NASA InSight unmanned lander began its mission on the Red Planet on May 5, 2018. Nobody expected him to work for four years, but eventually he was overcome by Martian dust that covered the solar panels of the device, cutting off its supply to its energy source.

“There is a day coming when I will be silent, completing my nearly four Earth years (more than two Martian years) of researching the Red Planet. When my time on Mars comes to an end, my team makes sure that scientists can make the best use of everything I have collected,” we read in the message shared by NASA on Twitter.

Although scientists are trying to clear the solar panels of dust to extend the life of the lander, it does not have enough energy to perform the necessary actions. Most likely, InSight will finish its work for good in the next two weeks. All this time he is sending photos to Earth, and each of them may be his last.

InSight struggled with Martian dust all the time spent on the Red Planet. There were also many times the threat that the mission would be interrupted. Scientists did not expect the lander to be able to work for more than two years, so it fulfilled its mission better than expected. We remind you that it belonged to, among others detection of more than 500 earthquakes on Mars, identifying 10 thousand. dust eddies and start exploring the planet’s core.