Skip to main content

NASA’s InSight Mars lander will soon succumb to dust

NASA’s InSight lander is set to end operations on Mars after four years of service.

At a special meeting of key InSight mission personnel on Tuesday, May 17, it was confirmed that increasing amounts of dust on the lander’s two 7-feet-wide solar panels meant that it would likely cease science operations by the end of this summer, before completely losing power in December.

NASA’s InSight Lander Accomplishes Science Goals on Mars as Power Levels Diminish

Packed with an array of science instruments, InSight has detected more than 1,300 marsquakes — including a recent one measured as the largest quake ever detected on another planet — and also located quake-prone regions of the red planet. Overall, the mission has been a great success, with the lander achieving its primary goals within its first two years of deployment.

Recommended Videos

“InSight has transformed our understanding of the interiors of rocky planets and set the stage for future missions,” said Lori Glaze, director of NASA’s Planetary Science Division. “We can apply what we’ve learned about Mars’ inner structure to Earth, the moon, Venus, and even rocky planets in other solar systems.”

Dust problem

InSight has been gradually losing power due to an accumulation of dust on its solar panels that has gradually blocked out sunlight. When it arrived on Mars in 2018, the panels produced around 5,000 watt-hours each Martian day (a touch longer than an Earth day), but today they’re producing around 500 watt-hours per Martian day. Offering some context, NASA says these kinds of energy levels would power an electric oven for 100 minutes and 10 minutes, respectively.

The worsening situation means the team is now preparing to place the lander’s robotic arm in its resting position — known as the “retirement pose” — later this month.

It’s worth noting that the arm played a key role in prolonging the lander’s mission as the team deployed it to clear dust off the panels earlier in the mission. The idea, which came about when the team first realized that dust was causing InSight to lose power, involved scooping up Martian soil and dumping it on the panels. Windy conditions then blew away the soil, taking some of the dust with it. It wasn’t a perfect solution, but it worked. For a while, anyway.

The only way that InSight can be saved now is for stronger winds — in the form of a Martian whirlwind — to clear the dust off the solar panels.

“We’ve been hoping for a dust-cleaning [event] like we saw happen several times to the Spirit and Opportunity rovers,” said mission member Bruce Banerdt. “That’s still possible, but energy is low enough that our focus is making the most of the science we can still collect.”

NASA said that if a quarter of InSight’s panels were cleared of dust, the lander would gain about 1,000 watt-hours per Martian day, enough to enable further science work.

For now, the lander’s energy is being prioritized for its seismometer, which is working at night when winds are low, giving it the best chance to detect marsquakes.

As things stand, the team expects the seismometer to stop working in the next few months, leaving InSight with enough power only to snap the occasional photo and communicate with Earth before finally going quiet in December.

The loss of InSight will leave NASA with three science missions on the surface of Mars: the Perseverance and Curiosity rovers, and the Ingenuity rotorcraft.

Please enable Javascript to view this content

Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
NASA’s Mars rover just emerged from Jezero Crater. So, what next?
Perseverance's view from the rim of Mars' Jezero Crater

NASA personnel are celebrating the news that its Perseverance rover has finally reached the top of the Mars’ Jezero Crater rim after a challenging climb that took three-and-a-half months to complete.

The six-wheeled rover ascended 1,640 feet (500 meters) and made stops along the way to conduct various science observations as it continues its search for signs of ancient microbial life on the red planet.

Read more
NASA learns how the Ingenuity helicopter ended up crashing on Mars
NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, right, stands near the apex of a sand ripple in an image taken by Perseverance on Feb. 24, 2024, about five weeks after the rotorcraft’s final flight. Part of one of Ingenuity’s rotor blades lies on the surface about 49 feet (15 meters) west of helicopter (at left in image).

Earlier this year, the NASA helicopter Ingenuity came to the end of its mission after an incredible 72 flights on Mars. The helicopter flew a remarkable 30 times farther than planned, and was the first rotocopter to fly on another planet, proving that exploring distant worlds from the air is possible. Now, NASA has revealed new details about what exactly caused the crash that brought the mission to an end, and what it learned about flying helicopters for future missions.

The final flight of Ingenuity took place on January 18, 2024, when the helicopter rose briefly into the air in a maneuver called a hop. The helicopter was fitted with a number of cameras, and shadows cast onto the planet's surface revealed that one of the helicopter's rotor blades was missing, having apparently separated at the mast. But it wasn't certain what had caused this damage.

Read more
NASA’s Mars rover reveals what it’s grateful for this Thanksgiving
NASA's Curiosity rover on Mars.

It’s not just people who are sharing what they’re grateful for during Thanksgiving today -- Mars rovers are, too.

In a post on X, NASA’s Curiosity rover, which landed on Mars in 2012, shared a message saying: “These stunning views of the Red Planet are a reminder of how vast and mysterious our universe is. What are you grateful for this Thanksgiving?”

Read more