After 4 Years of Service, Seismic Lander Tunes Out for Good

NASA’s InSight has seen the end of its service after the lander remains unresponsive for 2 consecutive attempts.

Insight controllers at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California have slowly watched the lander's solar arrays gather layer after layer of thick martian dust, choking off InSight's power supply. They now suspect that its power banks are entirely depleted, with little recourse to recharge them.

NASA had previously the termination criteria for the InSight lander mission as 2 missed comms attempts, which have now come to pass since December 15th. Mission control will continue to listen in for any signal returning from the lander, but odds aren't looking too great that it will manage to return from its apparent level of battery depletion.

“I watched the launch and landing of this mission, and while saying goodbye to a spacecraft is always sad, the fascinating science InSight conducted is cause for celebration,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. “The seismic data alone from this Discovery Program mission offers tremendous insights not just into Mars but other rocky bodies, including Earth.”

Throughout its tenure, InSight, or Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport, studied the depths of mars using an array of magnetometric and seismic assessments. The result is a far deeper understanding about the Red Planet's interior layers, its extinct magnetic dynamo, and more. 

“With InSight, seismology was the focus of a mission beyond Earth for the first time since the Apollo missions, when astronauts brought seismometers to the Moon,” said Philippe Lognonné of Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, principal investigator of InSight’s seismometer. “We broke new ground, and our science team can be proud of all that we’ve learned along the way.”

FMI: www.nasa.gov/insight