According to an initial report from NASA, the InSight Mars lander is deep in an energy crisis Insider.
The $ 800 million robot initially hit a Martian plain called Elysium Planitia in 2018, detecting more than 500 Martian earthquakes in its lifetime, launching the study of the core of the Red Planet to new depths and guarding the passage of more. than 10,000 dust devils.
However, this long list of scientific breakthroughs may suddenly come to an end, as the unforgivable cold of Mars’ weather could bring all operations to a standstill.
At the time of writing, the InSight Lander is in hibernation mode while NASA engineers are working to prevent losing what is left of its precious life.
NASA’s InSight Can Endure and Recharge Mars Winter
InSight’s landing area is unique. Named Elysium Planitia, it does not have the powerful wind gusts that NASA’s Perseverance Rover enjoys. Gusts of wind are also called ‘cleaning events’ because they blow the accumulating Mars dust from the solar panels of NASA robots. Without this natural wind, the dust builds up in a thick, sun-blocking layer – and this is what happened to InSight, which is virtually unable to absorb sunlight to generate more energy.
In February, InSight’s solar panels produced about 27% of their total energy capacity – that’s when winter arrives in Elysium Planitia. So NASA deliberately ordered InSight to go into “hibernation mode”, which turns off different instruments every day. But soon the robot will be forced to turn off all functions that are unnecessary to survive.
However, there is hope. To stop all scientific work, the InSight lander must be able to save enough important power to maintain a warm environment so that its systems can last through the deadly cold nights on Mars – when the temperature drops to 90 ° C negatively. .
“The amount of power available over the next few months will really be driven by the weather,” Chight Scott, Insight’s project manager, said in an official statement. We’m almost halfway through the robot’s planned hibernation period, but while InSight looks good so far, the risk of a potentially fatal power loss does not seem the least. If the robot’s batteries die, it could cause the fearless lander downfall.
“We’ll be hopeful of bringing it back to life, especially if it’s not sleeping or dead for a long time,” said Bruce Banerdt, chief investigator at InSight. Insider report. “But it would be a difficult situation.” NASA plans to resume InSight’s full operations once the Red Planet is closer to the sun’s wings in July this year. As it pulls through the sad winter weather of Mars, the robot robot can continue to listen to earthquakes and study again until 2022.
Random dust storm on Mars could ruin NASA’s InSight
The lack of power of InSight influenced NASA’s decision to abandon this country’s mole in January. It is designed to dig into the surface and measure the temperature deep inside the crust of Mars – data needed to understand the deep history of the Red Planet, in addition to its internal structure. But scientists need to hand over access to more data as the lander shuts down its instruments – with weather measurements becoming scarce, and the earthquake signals are expected to stop next month.
Banderdt thinks that the lander may also be missing some big ones – but it is better to save the whole lander than to sacrifice all future measurements for one alone. If or when InSight loses battery power, the scientist explained, “this is a good zombie spacecraft” – meaning it will actively recharge and restart as soon as it has access to sunlight.
“The problem with the scenario is that the spacecraft is very, very cold in the meantime,” Banderdt added. “And that happens during the coldest part of the year for the spacecraft. A lot of the electronics are pretty fine.”
“And it’s unfortunately quite likely that something will be damaged by the cold.”
Although the signs point to doom and gloom for NASA’s InSight lander, it could get worse. If a random dust storm pops up in the next four or five months, even more dust could accumulate on InSight’s solar panels. Luckily for the robot, this is not a dust storm season. “We think we are doing well, but Mars is unpredictable,” Banerdt added. “We never know exactly what’s going to happen.”