(NASA/JPL-Caltech)
The Martian lander InSight sent back to Earth its last selfie, made up of frames taken with the help of a robotic arm.
In three months the station will complete its scientific program, and in the following months, NASA will turn the probe off forever.
InSight has been operating on Mars for more than 3 years, becoming the first full-fledged geophysical extraterrestrial research program.
The lander recorded more than 1,300 marsquakes, including one on the far side of the planet.
Thanks to the collected data, scientists determined:
- the main boundaries between the inner layers of Mars,
- made a detailed diagram of the subsurface layers,
- estimated the size of Mars’ core
- revealed the seasonality of marsquakes.
The robot receives electricity by two large solar panels, initially scientists expected that dust whirlwinds would periodically clean them from dust, but this was not the case.
As a result, the output power of the batteries has now fallen by a factor of 10, and attempts to clean them with a manipulator have proved ineffective.
This led NASA to extend the operation of the station only until the end of this year, and then decided to complete the scientific program by the end of summer.
On April 24 (Sol 1211), InSight took its last selfie, which is composed of frames taken by the IDC (Instrument Deployment Camera) mounted on the 2.4-meter IDA (Instrument Deployment Arm) robotic arm.
In the near future, the manipulator will be transferred to the rest position and will no longer be used during the operation of the device.
((NASA/JPL-Caltech))
If we compare the first selfie taken by the probe in December 2018 and the last one, we can see a thick layer of dust covering all the elements of the device.
We can also notice the absence of SEIS and HP3 instruments that were landed on Mars with the help of a manipulator.
Finally, we can also observe a strong local soil pollution of the station near one of its solar panels, a by-product of attempts to clean the dust off the panels.
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