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As of Tuesday, the probe had already sent a couple photos of its desolate landscape, putting scientists on Earth to work. In true indefatigable robotic form, InSight has not wasted time resting since landing. “The best of NASA is yet to come, and it is coming soon." "InSight will study the interior of Mars and will teach us valuable science as we prepare to send astronauts to the Moon and later to Mars,” said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine in a statement.

According to NASA, its mission is partly geologic, as its tools will help understand Mars' crust and mantle  ultimately, the lander's science will help contribute to an overall picture of the history of the solar system, and how Mars, Earth and the other planets formed and evolved. But with that out of the way, the casual, non-scientist reader may be asking: what is InSight actually doing on Mars?Īs it turns out, InSight has a busy schedule over the next two years. Headlines around the world celebrated the achievement.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Science and Educational Media Group.On Monday, the robot population of Mars increased by one: NASA's InSight probe, a concatenation of "Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations." The robotic probe’s nail-biting landing - the first successful Mars landing in six years - was perhaps the most dangerous part of its mission numerous previous Martian probes have failed upon crash-landing, including the last one sent there, the European Space Agency's Schiaparelli Lander. It just completed its 37th flight and has now logged more than an hour of Martian flight time. Perseverance also has a companion: a mini helicopter named Ingenuity. NASA plans to bring some of these samples back to Earth in a decade, in its longtime search for signs of ancient microscopic life on Mars. Perseverance is in the midst of creating a sample depot the plan is to leave 10 tubes of rock cores on the Martian surface as a backup to samples on the rover itself. NASA still has two active rovers on Mars: Curiosity, roaming the surface since 2012, and Perseverance, which arrived early last year. If I can keep talking to my mission team, I will - but I'll be signing off here soon. "Don't worry about me though: my time here has been both productive and serene. "My power's really low, so this may be the last image I can send," the team wrote on InSight's behalf. InSight recently sent back one last selfie, shared by NASA via Twitter on Monday. NASA declared it dead nearly two years ago. The lander's other main instrument, however, encountered nothing but trouble.Ī German digging device - meant to measure the temperature of Mars' interior - never made it deeper than a couple feet (half a metre), well short of the intended 16 feet (5 metres). In a stroke of luck, the whirling column of dust blew directly over the lander in 2021 when its microphone was on. Just last week, scientists revealed that InSight scored another first, capturing a Martian dust devil not just in pictures, but sound.

The seismometer readings shed light on Mars' interior. The most recent marsquake sensed by InSight, earlier this year, left the ground shaking for at least six hours, according to NASA. It detected more than 1,300 marsquakes with its French-built seismometer, including several caused by meteoroid strikes. InSight landed on Mars in 2018 and was the first spacecraft to document a marsquake. The team will keep trying to contact InSight, just in case. "It's unknown what prompted the change in its energy." "It's assumed InSight may have reached the end of its operations," NASA said late Monday, adding that its last communication was Thursday. Ground controllers at California's Jet Propulsion Laboratory knew the end was near, but NASA reported that InSight unexpectedly didn't respond to communications from Earth on Sunday. The lander's power levels have been dwindling for months because of all the dust coating its solar panels. It could be the end of the red dusty line for NASA's InSight lander, which has fallen silent after four years on Mars.