After over four years on Mars, NASA’s InSight lander has been declared dead. Mission Control at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California was unable to reestablish contact with the robotic spacecraft on two consecutive attempts, leaving engineers to conclude that the lander’s solar-powered batteries are exhausted.
Launched on May 5, 2018 atop an Atlas V rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, the InSight lander was tasked with making the first detailed geological study of the Red Planet. After touching down on the Elysium Planitia region of Mars on November 26, 2018, the lander deployed a series of instruments. Among these was a highly sensitive seismograph, which was part of the last experiment still functioning as NASA engineers rationed the lander’s power during its final months of life.
A more spectacular experiment involved a self-hammering spike called the “mole,” that was intended to drive a thermal sensor deep into the ground to measure the heat in the interior of the planet. Unfortunately the device was designed to operate in soft, sandy soil, and was unable to cope with the clumpy soil at the landing site.
Read more: New Atlas
