NASA scientists believe that the InSight Mars lander may finally be on its last legs and stop working
NASA’s Mars lander will break down soon enough / Photo: NASA
Although InSight has recovered from the massive January dust storm on the Red Planet, the gradual accumulation of debris on the solar panels is drastically reducing its power levels.
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The situation has exacerbated the situation to such an extent that its shutdown may occur by the end of 2022, writes NASA.
To delay the inevitable, NASA from 2021 forced InSight to perform a clever exercise.
In the process he scoops up martian dirt and allows it to slowly drift over the solar panels, clearing some of the panels of caked dust.
Though the exercise was called almost insanity scientists themselves, it worked, temporarily increasing energy output by 1-3% percent each time the lander was tasked to do so.
Although the InSight team submitted a request to NASA to extend the mission of the lander, it is unlikely that the device will collect a lot of data at the end of the summer.
Energy will fall below the level required to operate the payload between May and June 2022. It is likely that the device will shut down towards the end of the year.
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Source: Segodnya
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