The Mission Of Mars InSight Lander Comes To An End After Four Long Years

Dec, 2022 - By WMR

On Wednesday, NASA confirms that the Mars Insight lander mission came to an end.

The Insight lander’s mission about the red planet, Mars, came to an end after spending 1500 days on the Mars surface. The lander was unable to respond to two messages that were sent from the mission control at NASA’s Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. The mission ended after it landed on November 26, 2018 on Mars surface.

InSight has given scientists several pictures of Mars and collected information about Mars that will be useful for the humans when they land on Mars. The journey of the lander was indeed very tough. As reports from NASA, “the mole” or the self-hammering heat probe was so planned that it could reach a depth of 16 feet below the surface to track how the heat escape from inside. The team of the InSights tried every bit in order to send the heat flow and about all the physical properties beneath the Martian soil for two long years. But sadly, due to the soil’s clump form, stopped the mole in getting the proper friction it needed. The mission was extended twice but owing to build up of dust on its solar panel, the lander’s power source dropped steadily.

InSight was able to collect an in depth information about the weather on the Mars. For four years, it captured the daily weather forecast, captured several images, recorded weird sounds of wind and saw many sunrises and sunsets. InSight witnessed the Marsquake. On Earth, it is due to the techtonic plates. But Martian crust is a single plate whose crust has fractures and faults within it as the plant shrinks when it cools. This further puts pressure on the Martian crusts causing it to o stretch and crack.

Associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Thomas Zurbuchen said in Washington,”while saying goodbye to a spacecraft is always sad, the fascinating science InSight conducted is cause for celebration.”