New Life: NASA's InSight Mars Lander Gets a Few Extra Weeks of Science Operations - SciTechDaily

NASA’s InSight Mars lander uses a seismometer to study the inner layers of Mars.

The InSight mission’s team has chosen to operate its seismometer longer than previously planned, although the lander will run out of power sooner as a result.

As the power available to NASA’s InSight Mars lander diminishes by the day, the spacecraft’s team has revised the mission’s timeline in order to maximize the science they can conduct.

The lander was projected to automatically shut down the seismometer – InSight’s last operational science instrument – by the end of June in order to conserve energy, surviving on what power its dust-laden solar panels can generate until around December.

NASA’s InSight Mars lander took this final selfie on April 24, 2022, the 1,211th Martian day, or sol, of the mission.

Instead, the team now plans to program the lander so that the seismometer can operate longer, perhaps until the end of August or into early September.

“InSight hasn’t finished teaching us about Mars yet,” said Lori Glaze, director of NASA’s Planetary Science Division in Washington.

This is NASA InSight’s first full selfie on Mars.

To enable the seismometer to continue to run for as long as possible, the mission team is turning off InSight’s fault protection system.

This is NASA InSight’s second full selfie on Mars.

Since taking its first selfie, the lander has removed its heat probe and seismometer from its deck, placing them on the Martian surface; a thin coating of dust now covers the spacecraft as well.

“The goal is to get scientific data all the way to the point where InSight can’t operate at all, rather than conserve energy and operate the lander with no science benefit,” said Chuck Scott, InSight’s project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.

Regular updates on InSight’s power and observations from mission team members will appear on blogs.nasa.gov/insight.

JPL manages InSight for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate.

Lockheed Martin Space in Denver built the InSight spacecraft, including its cruise stage and lander, and supports spacecraft operations for the mission.