NASA InSight Mars Lander Could Likely Terminate its Operations in Late 2022

Joseph Henry, Tech Times 22 June 2022, 03:06 pm

NASA's InSight Lander has been around for almost four years on the Martian surface. The space agency is using this spacecraft to explore the geography of the planet and learn more about "Marsquakes."

For the sake of science and discovery, scientists are staking the condition of this machine in hopes of gathering more information about Mars.

InSight Mars Lander Might Cave In Soon

NASA's InSight Mars Lander's Death Might Come Sooner Than Expected

(Photo : FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images)
NASA scientists are risking the InSight Mars Lander's condition to gather more data on the Red Planet in the upcoming months.

The Red Planet has been a challenging environment for the robotic lander. For many years, it's been digging a lot of data on Mars, and this has helped the experts study the planet deeply.

However, the machines have limitations, and so does the lander. According to CNET, the scientists will use the InSight spacecraft on its final days to detect more Marsquakes on Earth's neighboring planet.

With that in mind, NASA expects that the lander won't last long, and it will stop all of its operations by the end of 2022. The spacecraft will continue its quest to learn more about the seismic activities of Mars.

The experts are aware of the caveat of pushing the InSight lander to its limits. In doing so, its solar-powered batteries will be quickly discharged, and this means immediate death for the machine.

"InSight hasn't finished teaching us about Mars yet. We're going to get every last bit of science we can before the lander concludes operations," NASA's Planetary Science Division in Washington director Lori Glaze said in a recent release.

Throughout its operations on the red planet starting in 2018, the robot succeeded in detecting more than 1,300 Marsquakes. This gave a lot of ideas to the scientists about the potential structure of Mars' core.

During its early days, it could use 5,000 watt-hours per sol (the equivalent day on Mars). Since it's been struggling to move forward due to the extreme landscape of the Martian soil, its capability has declined, and it could only use 500 watt-hours per sol.

Risking InSight Lander on its Upcoming Explorations

As of the moment, the scientists are hoping that the lander's seismometer will still be functional.

Since the machine is at the peak of breaking, the team decided to switch to the fault protection system of InSight. Through this feature, the lander automatically goes to safe mode when it detects hazards like dust storms. If the spacecraft is already low in power, it would also go in the same mode.

NASA hopes that putting the lander at risk in the next few months will be worth the sacrifice. By that time, the lander needs to gather more data that the scientists need in their research.

As per Gizmodo, it's a huge obstacle for the team to get rid of the dust on the panel of the InSight. For this part, they could incorporate a dusting mechanism for the robot to thrive longer on its journey.

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Written by Joseph Henry