NASA’s InSight lander is bravely fighting for its survival on the surface of Mars. But its luck may soon run out — the space lander is threatened by a Martian dust storm the size of a continent, which raged at the end of September. This hurricane threatens to completely leave the device without a power source. In early October, NASA has already noted a significant drop in the energy that the lander receives from solar panels.
“On October 3, the storm acquired a sufficient scale and raised so much dust that the thickness of the dust fog in the Martian atmosphere increased by almost 40% around InSight,” the administration said in a statement on Friday. As the storm approached, the lander was no longer able to fully charge its batteries.
The solar panels of the lander are covered with a thick layer of dust, which caused the device to lose the ability to receive electricity, which brought it closer to the end of its mission. The InSight team turned off most of the lander’s instruments, leaving only the seismometer working to try to identify as many marsquakes as possible.
Recent events have helped InSight stay operational. NASA even hoped to extend the mission until the beginning of 2023, after which it finally turned off the device. But a Martian storm threatens to end the mission sooner. Still, there is some good news. The regional storm has probably already reached its peak and will subside soon. NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft is observing the hurricane from the planet’s orbit and has seen signs of its power slowing down.
Earlier, we reported on how the InSight mission recorded seismic vibrations from a meteorite falling on Mars.
According to NASA
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