The InSight lander, perched on the surface of Mars since 2018, will run out of power and stop operations within four to eight weeks, NASA said on Thursday (Oct 27), even as scientists detailed a big meteorite strike it detected that gouged boulder-sized chunks of ice surprisingly close to the planet s equator.
Dust has been accumulating on solar panels that draw power for the US space agency s stationary lander, exacerbated by a dust storm, and has been depleting its batteries, planetary geophysicist Bruce Banerdt of NASA s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, InSight mission s principal investigator, told a briefing.
InSight’s mission, which has helped reveal the internal structure of Mars and its seismic activity, originally was planned for two years but was extended to four. When the power runs out, NASA will lose contact with InSight, Banerdt said.
InSight also established that Mars is seismically active, detecting 1,318 marsquakes.
Two research papers published in the journal Science detailed meteorite strikes on the Martian surface detected by InSight in September and December of last year.
Seismic waves triggered by the impacts revealed fresh details about the structure of the Martian crust, the planet s outer layer.
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