After more than four years on Mars, NASA has decommissioned the InSight lander. The US space agency said last night that a team from the California control center was unable to contact Insight on two consecutive attempts.
This, she said, indicates that the solar-powered batteries for the unit are no longer able to provide enough power.
The reason for this is dust from the Red Planet, which is getting thicker and thicker on the solar modules. NASA already announced on Tuesday that the probe may have sent its last image of Mars. It was said earlier in November that Insight would only have power for a few weeks.
More than 1,300 swamps have been recorded
The stationary probe arrived at Mars in November 2018 to measure seismic activity. He achieved his science goals after just over two years, so that he was then on “extended assignment”.
According to NASA, InSight has recorded more than 1,300 earthquakes, which give scientists information about the internal structure of the planet. The main task now is to secure the amount of data and make it accessible to researchers all over the world.
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