NASA’s retired lander, InSight, has been caught on camera by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) showing how dust on and around it is changing over time. The images taken recently by MRO’s High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera have helped scientists learn more about the Red Planet.
InSight was the first to detect marsquakes on Mars, revealing details of the planet’s crust, mantle, and core between 2018 and 2022. The lander had a four-year mission that included studying dust devils, craters, and meteoroid impacts on the Martian surface.
Engineers used images from InSight’s cameras and MRO’s HiRISE to estimate how much dust was settling on the stationary lander’s solar panels, as dust affected its ability to generate power.
In 2022, NASA retired InSight after it ran out of power and stopped communicating with Earth. However, scientists continued listening for radio signals from the lander in case wind cleared enough dust from the spacecraft’s solar panels for its batteries to recharge.
Recent HiRISE images have helped scientists study how much dust collects on the surface, which can tell us about the planet’s wind, dust cycle, and other processes that shape Mars. The images also helped match MRO images of dust devil tracks with data from InSight’s wind sensors, showing these phenomena subside in winter and pick up again in summer.
The imagery has been helpful for studying meteoroid impacts on the Martian surface by analyzing craters and their age. It has also captured images of NASA’s Perseverance and Curiosity rovers, as well as inactive missions like the Spirit and Opportunity rovers and the Phoenix lander.
Engineers are now stopping listening for InSight at the end of this year after detecting no changes in dust accumulation over the past two years. The mission continues to provide valuable information about Mars despite its retirement.
Source: https://www.nasa.gov/missions/insight/nasa-mars-orbiter-spots-retired-insight-lander-to-study-dust-movement