This may be the last image sent back from NASA’s Mars Insight spacecraft.
After a four-year mission on the Red Planet, the robotic probe—notorious for its serendipity The first “selfie” taken on Mars – is turned off.
Thick dust blown by the wind covered InSight’s solar panels, b NASA Expecting to lose contact with the probe soon.
The US space agency posted the news on the spacecraft’s Twitter page, saying: “My power is really low, so this may be the last image I can send.
“Although, don’t worry regarding me: my time here has been productive and uneventful.
“If I can keep talking to my mission team, I will – but I’m going to sign here soon. Thanks for staying with me.”
NASA announced the £630m InSight project 10 years ago as a follow-up to the successful Curiosity rover.
The InSight lander’s goal was to discover how Mars formed, with the goal of giving scientists a better understanding of how rocky bodies like Earth formed.
Before that, the spacecraft had to successfully make the 300 million-mile journey to Mars before it might continue Seven minutes of terror to come down to the surface.
Only 40% of flights to the Red Planet have safely crossed the thin atmosphere.
Pic: NASA/JPL-Caltech.
A combination of a heat shield, parachute and retrograde gear helped slow InSight from 13,000 mph to 5 mph in just six minutes to allow it to land on Elysium Planitia, a featureless plain north of the Curiosity rover site.
Once it fluttered, the spacecraft rammed a temperature probe five meters into the surface to measure heat flowing from the planet’s core.
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Five months following the landing, InSight’s seismograph recorded a faint roar. NASA scientists concluded that it came from inside the planet, and called it a “Mars earthquake.”
One of InSight’s major accomplishments was proving that the Red Planet is indeed seismically active, recording more than 1,300 swamps.
NASA’s robotic lander, Insight. Pic: NASA/JPL-Caltech.
NASA said the recording started a new field of research in “Martian seismology,” which might help learn more regarding how rocky planets form.
He also measured the seismic waves generated by meteorite impacts, revealing the thickness of the planet’s outer crust, the size and density of the inner core, and the structure of the mantle that lies between them.
But there was also time for some fun. The rover is famous for taking the first ever “selfie” taken on Mars, using a camera attached to its robotic arm to send a picture all the way back to Earth.
InSight takes a “selfie” on Mars using a camera on its robotic arm.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) near Los Angeles will continue to listen for a signal from the probe, just in case.
Experts say hearing regarding InSight once more is unlikely.
The stationary, three-legged probe made contact with Earth on December 15th.
