NASA's InSight Mars Lander Doomed: Dust Accumulation on Solar Panels Too Much To Handle

NASA has completed a year-long Mars mission to keep the $813 million InSight lander alive.

However, it looks like our favorite Mars robot won't last for much too long.

The Mars Lander InSight Currently Has Less Energy

Since layers of dust formed on its solar panels and stuck there, InSight has been running on reduced power.

It now produces only one-tenth of the daily energy it did when the expedition began. Its battery charge was sufficient to run an electric oven for one hour and 40 minutes in 2018. According to mission manager Kathya Zamora Garcia, such an oven could only be used for 10 minutes today.

The New York Times noted that InSight's solar panels produced 5,000 watt-hours of energy every Martian day when it landed in November 2018.

Although NASA had previously approved funds to keep InSight operational until December 2022, officials from the agency indicated in a press conference on Tuesday that they estimate power levels to drop so low by late summer that the lander will be permanently shut down.

Though InSight accomplished its mission of investigating Mars' deep interior structure, its last year of research on the planet has been plagued by power outages to conserve power.

InSight Has Fulfilled Its Primary Mission

As per the report of The New York Times, the spacecraft accomplished its primary goals during its two-year primary mission, and NASA approved a two-year extension until the end of 2022.

The goal of the InSight Mars lander is to evaluate the thickness and structure of Mars' crust, investigate the thermal state of the planet's interior, and assess the frequency of internal seismic activity and meteorite impacts on the planet with its many pieces of equipment.

Since its arrival on Mars on Nov. 26, 2018, the InSight Mars lander has detected over 1,313 Marsquakes or earthquakes that occur on Mars.

In fact, NASA labeled one of its most recent Marsquake detections as a magnitude 5 quake, or a "monster quake."

What Will Happen if InSight Shuts Down?

The New York Times reported that as the spacecraft's energy runs out, the managers will begin to turn off its instruments and store its mechanical arm. They'll aim to keep the craft's main scientific gear, a sensitive seismometer, running as long as possible. Still, in a few weeks, they'll start running it for only part of the day, or even every other day, rather than continuously.

When InSight loses power, it will join a slew of NASA missions marooned on Mars after long, successful missions, including the two Viking landers, which landed in 1976, and the Spirit and Opportunity rovers, which arrived in 2004 for 90-day missions but ended up staying for years.

Meanwhile, Ms. Garcia predicted that the seismometer would have to be turned off completely in July. After that, there will be just enough energy to monitor radio communications and perhaps take a few pictures.