There are several missions that POT has sent to Mars. The study of the red planet is important to know the formation of the Solar System to which we belong and the reasons why we exist in the universe. Also, that it is a planetary neighbor that has a lot in common with Earth.
With the aim of analyzing the soils of Mars, the InSight mission was launched on May 5, 2018. After months of extensive space travel, it landed at its destination port on November 26 of the same year.
Since then, it has returned data from Mars in a way no other mission has ever done. NASA’s InSight mission has more than accomplished its tasks.
The project, according to what the scientists in charge have always explained, analyzes the seismic, geodetic and heat transmission behavior of the neighboring planet.
It is then that we know that Mars has a liquid core that affects its weak magnetic field. Likewise, thanks to InSight, many more details are known about our neighbor’s tectonic plates and their seismic activity.
In fact, data has recently been revealed that suggests that there could be magma inside Mars.
Why is the InSight mission on Mars ending?
Scientists would love to keep this mission going. But unfortunately it does not depend on them. The device found on Mars feeds on energy that it captures with solar panels.
This mechanism has been compromised by the dust that falls on its own surface, and as a consequence it stops collecting energy and thus, little by little, its devices have been losing the response frequency.
To report this situation, NASA issues an emotional statement with which it begins to say goodbye.
“The day is coming when I will shut up, ending my nearly four Earth years (over two Mars years) of studying the Red Planet. As my time on Mars draws to a close, my team is helping to ensure scientists can get the most out of everything I’ve collected,” they wrote on NASA’s official mission account.
The day is coming when I’ll fall silent, ending my nearly four Earth years (over two Mars years) of studying the Red Planet. As my time winds down on Mars, my team is helping make sure scientists can get the most out of everything I’ve gathered.
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— NASA InSight (@NASAInSight) November 1, 2022