​After 1,480 days of activity, the Martian probe InSight missed its communication window with Earth on Sunday, November 18, and NASA believes this happened because the probe’s batteries could no longer provide enough power for onboard systems. The probe arrived at Mars on February 26, 2018 and was originally scheduled to operate for 2 years, but InSight continued to send data for more than 4 years.

Unlike the Curiosity, Perseverance or Zhurong rovers that can travel across the Martian surface, InSight was a stationary probe sent to record earthquakes on Mars to help us better understand the planet’s interior. That’s why InSight anchored on Elysium Planitia, where it deployed its science equipment, including a highly accurate seismometer, with which it began to listen for seismic waves generated not only by the planet’s geology, but also by meteorites that hit Mars during the InSight mission.

The 4-magnitude earthquake recorded on December 24, 2021, appeared to be the impact of a meteorite with a diameter of 5 to 12 meters, which created a new crater on the surface of Mars, identified by other probes in the planet’s orbit. And on May 4, 2022, InSight recorded the strongest earthquake ever recorded on Mars, with a magnitude of 5.

Unfortunately, the solar cells that supplied the electricity necessary for the proper operation of the probe have been covered by Martian dust over time, and recently their efficiency has decreased significantly. NASA predicted it would most likely lose radio contact with InSight by the end of this year, and it did: the Deep Space Network’s antennas stopped receiving any signal from the probe during its final communication session, scheduled for Sunday, 18 November This means that NASA received the last signal from InSight on December 16, and now the onboard batteries may no longer provide enough power for the communication module.

You must be wondering why the probe was not equipped with a mechanism to clean the dust from the two solar panels? Well, that wouldn’t be a good idea at all: every gram sent to Mars costs a lot, and the solar panel cleaning system would mean NASA would have to sacrifice one of the probe’s science devices to keep it within the mission budget, and within kilograms that the Atlas V rocket that launched the probe could send them to Mars.

Of course, a more powerful rocket (or even a more powerful version of the Atlas V) could be used, but then the mission budget would also increase. Also, another option would be to use radioactive material to generate electricity, as is the case with Perseverance or Curiosity, but again, we have to consider the budget: InSight and Perseverance belong to two different mission categories. , with different requirements and budgets, that is, if Perseverance or Curiosity afforded a radioactive “heart”, the same cannot be said for InSight.

Also, the original mission was supposed to last 2 years, and NASA, knowing the conditions on Mars, sized the two solar panels to withstand Martian dust for at least 2 years. As it turned out, the probe lasted twice as long as NASA had planned. Of course, we’d all like to see these probes last as long as possible, but the fact that InSight has continued to send data for twice as long as originally estimated is a triumph, not a failure, for the US space agency.

During this period, the American rovers Curiosity (since 2012) and Perseverance (along with the Ingenuity helicopter since 2021) are also active on the surface of Mars, as well as the Chinese rover Zhurong and the platform with which it reached Mars on May 19, 2021. Now in orbit 8 probes operate on the planet Mars: Mars Odyssey (NASA, 2001), Mars Express (ESA, 2003), Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (NASA, 2006), MAVEN (NASA, 2014), Trace Gas Orbiter (ESA, 2016), Hope (Ob United Arab Emirates, 2021) and Tianwen-1 (China, 2021). Recently, at the end of September, contact was also lost with India’s Mangalyaan probe, which has been orbiting Mars since 2014.

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