NASA’s $ 800 million Marslander is in an energy crisis.
InSight, which landed in a Martian plain called Elysium Planitia in 2018, detected more than 500 Martian earthquakes, saw more than 10,000 dust devils pass by and began measuring the planet’s core.
But over the past few months, InSight has been fighting for its life as the red planet’s unpredictable weather threatens to sniff out the robot.
Unlike other sites to which NASA has sent rovers and landers – including the landing site of the new Perseverance Rover and its Mars helicopter – powerful gusts of wind did not wash out the Elysium Planitia. These winds, called ‘cleaning events’, are needed to blow off the red Mars dust from the solar panels of NASA’s robots. Without their help, a thick layer of dust has accumulated on InSight, making it difficult to absorb sunlight.
InSight’s solar panels produced only 27% of their energy capacity in February, when winter arrived in Elysium Planitia. So NASA decided to put the lander in “hibernation mode”, and turn off different instruments every day. Soon, the robot will turn off all features that are not necessary for survival.
By interrupting its scientific activities, the lander should be able to save enough power to keep its systems warm during the icy March nights, when temperatures can drop to a negative 130 degrees Fahrenheit.
“The amount of power available over the next few months will really be driven by the weather,” Chuck Scott, InSight’s project manager, said in a statement.
InSight is now in good condition almost halfway through its expected hibernation period, but the danger of a potentially fatal power outage is still present. If the lander’s batteries are empty, it may never recover.
“We’ll hope we can bring it back to life, especially if it’s not sleeping or dead for a long time,” InSight lead researcher Bruce Banerdt told Insider. “But it would be a difficult situation.”
The agency expects to resume InSight’s full operations after Mars swung back to the sun in July. If it can survive this March winter, the lander could continue to listen to earthquakes and weather in 2022.
InSight could become ‘zombie’ after death
The shortage of power at InSight led NASA to abandon the country’s “mole” in January. The digging probe was supposed to measure the temperature deep in the Martian crust – important information in the study of the planet’s history and internal structure.
Now scientists are missing even more data because the lander is shutting down its instruments. Its weather measurements on Mars have become scarce, and in the next month it will stop listening to Martian tremors.
Banerdt fears the lander could miss major shakes, but it’s worth keeping the robot alive. When the batteries of InSight are dead, he added, “this is a good zombie spacecraft”, meaning it is programmed to recharge and restart as soon as the sun comes out.
“The problem with the scenario is that the spacecraft is very, very cold in the meantime. And that happens during the coldest part of the year for the spacecraft,” Banerdt said. “A lot of electronics are pretty fine. And unfortunately it’s pretty likely that something will be damaged by the cold.”
Banerdt suspects that this happened to the Spirit and Opportunity Rovers. Both’s energy was on the Martian surface and did not regain strength. However, he is hopeful that InSight does not have to die.
“At the moment, our predictions are our predictions that we should be able to go through the lowest power point and get out the other side,” Banerdt said.
Still, a strange dust storm could tip the scales in the next four or five months by throwing more dirt on InSight’s solar panels. This is what happened to Opportunity. But luckily it’s not a dust storm season.
“We think we are doing well, but Mars is unpredictable. We never know exactly what will happen,” Banerdt said.
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