NASA's InSight lander is still teaching us about Mars after its retirement

InSight, NASA’s ambitious mission to study the deep interior of the Red Planet, may be officially over, but its legacy continues to thrive. Dedicated to unraveling Mars’s mysteries, the lander is still shedding light on the planet’s dusty, enigmatic surface.

Even in retirement, InSight is contributing valuable insights through NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), and offering clues about the evolution of the Martian dust layer over time.

Legacy of the InSight lander

From the time of its landing in November 2018 until it retired in December 2022, InSight had a commendable journey. After its power source failed, however, it stopped communicating with Earth.

Efforts to reconnect to the lander continued, with scientists hoping that winds would clear enough dust from its solar panels to allow the batteries to recharge.

As these efforts proved to be unsuccessful, NASA decided to stop listening for InSight at the close of 2022.

Despite its unavailability, InSight carries a legacy. As the first spacecraft to register marsquakes, it has revealed invaluable details about the planet’s crust, mantle, and core.

Processes that shape the planet

Scientists from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, who led the mission, used images from the stationary lander’s cameras and from MRO’s HiRISE to predict the rate of dust settling on its solar panels, as it significantly impacted power generation.

Science team member Ingrid Daubar of Brown University emphasized the importance of this observation.

“Even though we’re no longer hearing from InSight, it’s still teaching us about Mars. By monitoring how much dust collects on the surface – and how much gets vacuumed away by wind and dust devils – we learn more about the wind, dust cycle, and other processes that shape the planet,” said Daubar

A tale of dust devils and craters

Dust does not just layer the Martian surface; it drives the forces shaping the atmosphere and landscape.

When InSight was active, scientists used the combination of MRO images and data from InSight’s wind sensors to track dust devil paths that wound over the landscape.

These weather phenomena were observed to subside in winter and intensify during summer, revealing crucial insights regarding Martian weather patterns.

Moreover, studying dust accumulation over meteoroid impacts on Martian surfaces aids in understanding the age of craters.

On Earth, tectonic plates and weathering continuously transform the landscapes. But the Martian surface, speckled with ancient craters, remains largely unchanged.

Observing how quickly dust settles over them helps estimate their age. However, the mission was not without nostalgia.

“It feels a little bittersweet to look at InSight now. It was a successful mission that produced lots of great science. Of course, it would have been nice if it kept going forever, but we knew that wouldn’t happen,” said Daubar.

Efforts behind the mission: MRO and InSight

The University of Arizona operates HiRISE, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp.

On the other hand, the MRO project and InSight were managed by a division of Caltech, JPL for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate.

InSight has been an integral component of NASA’s Discovery Program, which was managed by the Marshall Space Flight Center and built by Lockheed Martin Space.

The mission included a series of collaborations from international partners, such as France’s CNES, Germany’s DLR, and others, who contributed to its legacy.

Despite its retirement, the InSight lander lives on. Whether it’s studying the dust-laden Martian winds, the changing landscape, or the planet’s deep interior, it continues to enhance our understanding of the Red Planet – leaving a footprint that will never fade.

A window into Martian seasons

The InSight lander’s data has also played a vital role in understanding Martian seasonal patterns.

By combining its findings with observations from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, scientists have uncovered the intricate ways that dust activity fluctuates with the planet’s axial tilt and orbital position.

During the summer months, increased solar heating drives stronger winds, which create more frequent dust devils that sweep across the surface.

These observations provide valuable context for future missions, as they highlight the challenges that Martian seasons pose to solar-powered equipment.

Furthermore, InSight’s early recordings of atmospheric conditions – paired with MRO’s high-resolution imaging – have given researchers an unprecedented ability to map how dust storms begin, expand, and eventually dissipate.

This knowledge not only deepens our understanding of Mars’ dynamic atmosphere but also informs strategies for protecting human explorers and robotic systems on future missions.

Information for this article was obtained from a press release by NASA’s JPL.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

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