advertisement
Facebook
X
LinkedIn
WhatsApp
Reddit

InSight to be pushed to the limit in pursuit of Mars seismic data

All the way back in the heady days of May, NASA revealed that its InSight rover currently plodding along the surface of Mars was losing power.

At the time, NASA estimated that the rover would hold out until December but now, that timeline has been revised. The reason for this is that NASA wants to maximise the science operations it can complete with the rover while it still has juice. As such, the mission team will be operating the seismometer on the rover for longer than previously planned.

“InSight hasn’t finished teaching us about Mars yet,” explained director of NASA’s Planetary Science Division, Lori Glaze. “We’re going to get every last bit of science we can before the lander concludes operations.”

To be clear, InSight has already completed the mission it was sent to do on Mars and it is now in an extended mission phase. That having been said, all instruments aside from the seismometer have been powered off. This also means turning off the rover’s fault protection system. Should InSight experience a “sudden, unexpected” event, this system being powered off means that the team wouldn’t be able to respond.

However, NASA has reiterated that the point of InSight being on Mars was never about surviving forever.

“The goal is to get scientific data all the way to the point where InSight can’t operate at all, rather than conserve energy and operate the lander with no science benefit,” explains Chuck Scott, project manager for InSight at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Since landing in 2018, InSight has detected over 1 300 marsquakes and helped provide far deeper insight into our planetary neighbour.

[Source – NASA]

advertisement

About Author

advertisement

Related News

advertisement