Mars InSight lander retires after 4-year mission

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – NASA has formally withdrawn its Mars InSight lander, the first robotic probe specially designed to study the deep interior of a distant world, four years after reaching the surface of the red planet, it announced the american space agency. December 21

Mission controllers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) near Los Angeles determined the mission was over when two consecutive attempts to reestablish radio contact with the lander failed, a sign that the InSight’s solar-powered batteries had run out of power.

NASA predicted in late October that the spacecraft would reach the end of its operational life in a matter of weeks due to increasingly heavy dust accumulations on its solar panels, depleting the ability of its batteries to recharge – if

JPL engineers will continue to listen for a signal from the lander, just in case, but it is unlikely to hear back from InSight, NASA said. The three-legged stationary probe last communicated with Earth on December 15.

InSight landed on Mars in late November 2018 with instruments designed to detect planetary seismic resonances never before measured anywhere other than Earth, and its original two-year mission was later extended to four.

From its perch on a vast, relatively flat plain called Elysium Planitia, just north of the planet’s equator, the landing has helped scientists learn anew about the internal structure of Mars.

The researchers said the InSight data revealed the thickness of the planet’s outer crust, the size and density of its inner core, and the structure of the mantle in between.

One of InSight’s major achievements was establishing that the Red Planet is, in fact, seismically active, recording more than 1,300 earthquakes. He also measured seismic waves generated by meteorite impacts.

“The seismic data from this Discovery Program mission alone provides tremendous insight into not only Mars but other rocky bodies, including Earth,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate.

One such impact, a year ago, was found to have rock-sized chunks of water ice surprisingly close to Mars’ equator.

Even as InSight retires, a more recent robotic visitor to the red planet, NASA’s science rover Perseverance, continues to prepare a collection of Martian mineral samples for future analysis on Earth.

Last week, Perseverance deposited the first of 10 sample tubes it was to leave at a surface collection site on Mars as a backup cache, in case the primary supply stored in the rover’s belly cannot be transferred, for some reason, as planned to a recovery spacecraft. in the future, NASA said.