Speaking of InSight and Mars’s dust, we have some bad news. Our favorite lander is losing power due to all that dust on its solar panels, and the operations team has not found a way to dislodge it. Science operations are expected to end this summer, and the end of the mission is likely to occur in December.

InSight landed on Mars back in 2018 and has been through a lot. There was the heat probe that couldn’t go underground because the martian soil behaved differently than expected. There was dust collecting on the solar panels. There was feedback from winds affecting the seismometer. And through it all, InSight’s team worked to keep the science going, using the robotic arm and scoop in ingenious ways.

InSight has collected data on more than 1,300 marsquakes, including the magnitude 5 that occurred earlier this month. With all that information, scientists have mapped the interior of the red planet.

And InSight also collected weather and magnetic field data, allowing scientists to study those aspects as well. It has been the little mission that could.

While we are saddened to hear that the end of the mission is finally approaching, we will continue to report on all the amazing discoveries scientists make from the data collected.

Ad Astra, InSight. We salute you.

More Information

NASA press release