NASA's Mars InSight Lander Years in Mission: How Did This Spacecraft Help Scientific Research on the Red Planet?

NASA's Mars InSight Lander has been studying the interior of Mars since it landed in 2018 to learn how it evolved. Scientists believe that, like Earth, Mars also once had the right conditions to host life some 3 to 4 billion years ago before it lost its atmosphere and became what it is now.

The spacecraft was on a mission to listen to marsquakes that will help scientists what lies beneath its surface. But as its solar panels are covered in dust with no way of brushing it off and the power is slowly depleting, the Mars InSight Lander is now nearing its last mission.

Take a look at the significance of its mission before it shuts down this December.

(Photo : FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images)
A replica of the InSight Mars Lander is on display at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California on November 26, 2018 as excitement builds ahead of today's scheduled noontime (PST) landing of the spacecraft.

Mars InSight Lander Studying the Red Planet's Interior

Mars InSight Lander measures about 20 feet (6 meters) wide, including its solar panels that sit about 3 feet (1 meter) above the ground. It was based on the design of the Phoenix lander, which has a robotic arm and dual solar arrays that power the spacecraft.

According to Planetary Society, InSight has two scientific instruments on board to help it with its mission. The first one is SEIS, which measures marsquakes and the second one is the HP3 which is designed to burrow up to 5 meters to measure temperature.

From its landing until December 2020, InSight was only able to record gentle marsquakes that are fainter than magnitude 3.7. The readings suggest that the marsquakes are powered differently than earthquakes, indicating that the uppermost layers of the Red Planet may be heavily fractured or that the marsquakes they detected were from deeper within the planet, like its mantle.

Moreover, the soil at the landing site of InSight is different than any area on Mars as it did provide enough friction for the HP3 to burrow beneath the surface. It was not until January 2020 that the lander was able to dig the area thanks to the help of its robotic arm.

In total, InSight has recorded more than 1,300 marsquakes, with the biggest one detected so far being magnitude 5.0, which is considered a medium quake on Earth. An article in EarthSky explains that it is already expected that Earth would have higher intensity quakes because its plate tectonics are constantly building mountains and volcanoes.

ALSO READ: NASA to GIve Updates on InSight Mission After Lander Continues to Struggle From Mars Dust

The InSight's Last Mission

InSight was sent to Mars to understand the formation and evolution of terrestrial planets, determine the level of plate tectonic activity, and learn how often meteorites hit Mars.

But as winds have blown dust and covered the spacecraft's solar panels, NASA said that its last mission is nearing. According to New Atlas, NASA engineers tried to use InSight's robotic arm to trickle the sand, but the power continues to decline and the upcoming winter season on Mars does not also help.

In response, Mission Control has ordered InSight's robotic arm locked into its retirement post, and the power is diverted to its seismometer that will continue to record quakes in the next months. They estimate its power to drop so low by September that even its seismometer will no longer work. Then by December, the craft will cease to operate.

Fortunately, the lander has already fulfilled its primary mission and even gets to send back new data about Mars, such as the magnitude 5.0 marsquake on May 4.