NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured a high-resolution image on April 9. In the picture, you can see that the InSight Mars rover is covered with Martian dust. The probe was launched in November 2018.
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The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter’s High-Resolution Imaging Experiment (HiRISE), which is often responsible for taking detailed pictures of the rover on the Martian surface, briefly went into safe mode in January as a large amount of dust blanketed its rover. Solar panels, so that InSight has almost no solar power available, although subsequent power production has resumed.
The University of Arizona, which manages HiRISE, said on April 15: “Long-term change detection at sites like the InSight landing zone can tell us how dust moves on Mars and help us understand how the Martian surface has evolved over time.”
The agency said in a February update that power was only expected to last until around mid-year. “NASA’s InSight lander’s solar panels are generating nearly as much power as they did before the January storm. This level of power should allow the lander to continue scientific operations well into the summer,” the update said.
InSight, which landed on the Red Planet in 2018, has been operating at reduced power for some time due to a buildup of dust on its dual solar panels. Engineers managed to remove some dust from individual panels in 2021 by drenching them with sand.
Last year, NASA warned that reduced power supplies could sometimes end InSight’s operations in 2022. Compounding the issue is Mars’ natural orbital cycle, with the planet reaching its maximum distance from the sun in 2021, reducing available solar energy, and the seasonal cycle of dust activity picking up.
Moreover, the InSight probe is designed to last a Martian year (687 Earth days), and its focus is on understanding the interior of Mars, especially by observing the red planet’s vibrations known as Martian earthquakes.
