The US space probe InSight is “dying” on Mars, where it landed four years ago and first documented an earthquake on the planet, but power is running out.
The device did not respond to communications from Earth on Sunday, and the United States Space Agency (NASA) assumed Monday that the mission “may have come to an end”.
My power is very low so this may be the last picture I can send. Don’t worry about me though: my time here has been both productive and serene. If I can keep talking to my mission team, I will, but I’ll be signing off here soon. Thank you for staying with me. pic.twitter.com/wkYKww15kQ
– NASA InSight (@NASAInSight) December 19, 2022
The most recent successful communication took place on Thursday.
The spacecraft’s power level has been declining for months because of dust on the solar arrays. Mission controllers knew the end was near, but they will try again to restore communication anyway.
The InSight probe landed on Mars in 2018 and was the first spacecraft to record an earthquake on the planet, having documented more than 1,300 tremors.
At launch, the mission, intended to study the interior of Mars, lasted two years.
NASA has two active robots on Mars, Curiosity, on the planet’s surface since 2012, and Perseverance, which landed on the Martian floor in February 2021 to collect rock samples that will first be sent to Earth in the 1990s . , to study possible signs of microbial life in the past.
Source: DN
