{"id":24780,"date":"2022-12-20T16:42:55","date_gmt":"2022-12-20T16:42:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2022\/12\/20\/nasa-mars-lander-insight-falls-silent-after-4-years\/"},"modified":"2022-12-20T16:42:55","modified_gmt":"2022-12-20T16:42:55","slug":"nasa-mars-lander-insight-falls-silent-after-4-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2022\/12\/20\/nasa-mars-lander-insight-falls-silent-after-4-years\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA Mars lander InSight falls silent after 4 years"},"content":{"rendered":"

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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — <\/span>It could be the end of the red dusty line for NASA\u2019s InSight lander, which has fallen silent after four years on Mars. <\/p>\n

The lander\u2019s power levels have been dwindling for months because of all the dust coating its solar panels. Ground controllers at California’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory knew the end was near, but NASA reported that InSight unexpectedly didn’t respond to communications from Earth on Sunday. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s assumed InSight may have reached the end of its operations,\u201d NASA said late Monday, adding that its last communication was Thursday. “It\u2019s unknown what prompted the change in its energy.”<\/p>\n

The team will keep trying to contact InSight, just in case.<\/p>\n

InSight landed on Mars in 2018 and was the first spacecraft to document a marsquake. It detected more than 1,300 marsquakes with its French-built seismometer, including several caused by meteoroid strikes. The most recent marsquake sensed by InSight, earlier this year, left the ground shaking for at least six hours, according to NASA.<\/p>\n

The seismometer readings shed light on Mars’ interior. <\/p>\n

Just last week, scientists revealed that InSight scored another first, capturing a Martian dust devil not just in pictures, but sound. In a stroke of luck, the whirling column of dust blew directly over the lander in 2021 when its microphone was on.<\/p>\n

The lander’s other main instrument, however, encountered nothing but trouble.<\/p>\n

A German digging device \u2014 meant to measure the temperature of Mars’ interior \u2014 never made it deeper than a couple feet (half a meter), well short of the intended 16 feet (5 meters). NASA declared it dead nearly two years ago.<\/p>\n

InSight recently sent back one last selfie, shared by NASA via Twitter on Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy power\u2019s really low, so this may be the last image I can send,\u201d the team wrote on InSight’s behalf. \u201cDon\u2019t worry about me though: my time here has been both productive and serene. If I can keep talking to my mission team, I will \u2014 but I\u2019ll be signing off here soon. Thanks for staying with me.\u201d<\/p>\n

NASA still has two active rovers on Mars: Curiosity, roaming the surface since 2012, and Perseverance, which arrived early last year. <\/p>\n

Perseverance is in the midst of creating a sample depot; the plan is to leave 10 tubes of rock cores on the Martian surface as a backup to samples on the rover itself. NASA plans to bring some of these samples back to Earth in a decade, in its longtime search for signs of ancient microscopic life on Mars.<\/p>\n

Perseverance also has a companion: a mini helicopter named Ingenuity. It just completed its 37th flight and has now logged more than an hour of Martian flight time.<\/p>\n

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute\u2019s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n