Continuous sedimentation result Mars dust On the landing craft’s solar panels, the amount of power supplied to the device is reduced. At the beginning of the mission, the plates were producing 5000 watt hours per dayit is only now approx 500 watt-hours.
Unfortunately, due to this situation, in the coming months, The InSight probe will stop working.
Good news – the landing mission will take approx Twice the time originally expected. These were four ground years instead of the two planned. Devices detected so far More than 1,300 earthquakes on MarsIt is undoubtedly a huge success for the program.
The rover recently detected the largest earthquake ever recorded on Mars. Then the task assembled Unprecedented data On the structure and structure of the planet’s interior.
One of the legacies insight is that it really proves the desire to use seismology techniques in planetary science. For the first time in history, we were able to map the interior MarsBruce Banerdt, Principal Investigator at InSight
“InSight has changed our understanding of the interior of rocky planets and prepared Earth for futuristic missions. “
Scientists hope that swirls of dust On Mars it would blow the dust off the solar panels, but that didn’t happen. It was effective for a rover spirit And opportunity. Unfortunately, InSight wasn’t so lucky.
Previously, researchers devised an unusual plan for cleaning panels. InSight received the order Martian soil collection Drop it on the edge of the plates to attract dust to the sample. There were attempts to use it at that time Magnetic properties of dust. The maneuver was so effective that it increased power output by about 5 percent. With each approach. This procedure has been done six times so far and has succeeded each time.
Dust accumulation is likely to increase in the coming months as Mars enters the winter period, when Atmosphere There will be more dust. At the same time, less light will reach the probe.
The research team reported that if only 25 percent cleaned panels (by the wind), the probe will gain 1,000 watt-hours each Mars day. This will be enough to continue the search.
It is assumed that as of June, at the current rate of decrease in strength, non-seismic instruments are rarely operated. They have priority in receiving energy seismographs The probe that will only work at certain times of the day.
Scientists believe that if nothing changes, the power received in December will be very low The probe will simply stop responding. Hopefully the wind will help clean up InSight’s solar panels.
