Have you ever thought about saying goodbye to a robot? Fans of NASA’s InSight Mars Lander did that as it sent a final goodbye message on Twitter:
“My power’s really low, so this may be the last image I can send. Don’t worry about me, though: my time here has been both productive and serene.”
“If I can keep talking to my mission team, I will – but I’ll be signing off here soon. Thanks for staying with me.”
Why did NASA’s InSight Mars Lander sign off?
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, or NASA, sends robots to other planets for research. The InSight Mars Lander was its latest probe for Mars.
It is an autonomous spacecraft that has solar panels for power production. Unfortunately, Mars has frequent dust storms that hamper InSight’s performance.
The dust covers the skies, limiting the amount of sunlight that reaches its panels. Also, dirt accumulates on the panels, reducing the energy collected.
Last month, the NASA InSight Mars Lander shared an update regarding its time in outer space via Twitter.
“I’ve been lucky enough to live on two planets. Four years ago, I arrived safely at the second one, to the delight of my family back on the first.”
“Thanks to my team for sending me on this journey of discovery. Hope I’ve done you proud,” it said.
On November 2, NASA shared an update saying, “The spacecraft’s power generation continues to decline as windblown dust on its solar panels thickens.”
“The end is expected to come in the next few weeks.” On December 19, the Twitter account for the NASA InSight Mars Lander shared the abovementioned message.
What did the NASA InSight Mars Lander accomplish?
Photo Credit: mars.nasa.gov
The spacecraft hoped it would make NASA proud, and Bruce Banerdt, a planetary scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, believes it served its purpose.
“We’ve actually been able to do a whole lot more than what we claimed and promised to do,” told Banerdt to space.com.
Previous Mars exploration robots focused on testing the planet’s capacity for sustaining human life. On the other hand, the NASA InSight Mars Lander focused on studying seismic activity or “marsquakes.”
The robot enabled scientists to learn more about the Martian crust and core. Sue Smrekar, a planetary scientist at NASA’s JPL, expressed her satisfaction with InSight:
“Based on the data that we had available, we had to make a lot of assumptions about the interior.”
“Now we have this hard data, which gives us a much clearer picture of what’s going on inside the planet.”
Conclusion
NASA’s Insight Mars Rover shared its final message to Earth. It made NASA proud by providing valuable data to its scientists.
Scientist Bruce Banerdt said, “It’s been an amazing spacecraft. It’s done everything that we’ve asked it to do and more.”
The InSight team saved the robot’s data in an archive, and NASA is preparing for further Mars exploration. Follow Inquirer Tech for more space news and digital trends.