NASA’s $ 800 million Mars lander is in an energy crisis.
InSight, which landed in a Martian plain called Elysium Planitia in 2018, has detected more than 500 earthquakes on Mars, sensed more than 10,000 dust devils, and began measuring the planet’s core.
But in recent months, InSight has been fighting for its life as the red planet’s unpredictable weather threatens to extinguish the robot.
Unlike other locations where NASA has sent rovers and landers – including the landing site of the new Perseverance rover and its Mars helicopter – powerful gusts of wind have not carried Elysium Planitia.
These winds, called ‘cleaning events’, are needed to blow the red Mars dust off the solar panels of NASA robots. Without their help, a thick layer of dust has accumulated on InSight and it has difficulty absorbing sunlight.
(NASA / JPL-Caltech)
Above: The InSight lander’s camera captured a photo of one of the solar panels covered in dust on Feb. 14.
InSight’s solar panels produced just 27 percent of their energy capacity in February, when winter arrived in Elysium Planitia.
That’s why NASA decided to put the lander into “sleep” mode, with several instruments turned off every day. Soon the robot will disable all functions that are not necessary for survival.
By pausing its scientific operations, the lander should be able to conserve enough power to keep its systems warm during the frigid Martian nights, when temperatures can drop to -30 degrees Fahrenheit.
“The amount of power that will be available in the coming months will be determined by the weather,” Chuck Scott, InSight’s project manager, said in a statement.
Now, almost halfway through the expected hibernation period, InSight is still in good working order, but the risk of a potentially fatal power outage is always present. If the lander’s batteries run out, it may never recover.
“We’d hope we could bring it back to life, especially if it’s not asleep or dead for a long time,” Bruce Banerdt, InSight’s lead investigator, told Insider. “But that would be a tricky situation.”
The agency expects to restart full InSight operations after Mars swings back toward the sun in July. If it can survive this Mars winter, the lander can continue to listen for earthquakes and track the weather until 2022.
InSight’s power shortage contributed to NASA’s decision to leave the lander’s “mole” in January. That burrowing probe was supposed to measure the temperature deep in the Martian crust – crucial data in the study of the planet’s history and internal structure.
Now scientists are missing out on even more data as the lander shuts down its instruments. Its weather measurements on Mars have become sparse, and it will stop listening for earthquakes in the next month.
Banerdt said he fears the lander could miss some major earthquakes, but it’s worth keeping the robot alive. If InSight’s batteries fail, he added, “it’s a good zombie spacecraft” – meaning it’s programmed to charge and start up again as soon as the sun comes up.
“The problem with that scenario is that the spacecraft is very, very cold in the meantime. And this happens during the coldest part of the year for the spacecraft,” Banerdt said. “Much of the electronics are quite delicate. And it is unfortunately quite likely that something would be damaged by the cold.”
Banerdt suspects this has happened to the Spirit and Opportunity rovers. Both had run out of energy on the surface of Mars and could no longer start up. However, he hopes InSight doesn’t have to die.
“Right now, our predictions, our projections are that we should be able to get through the lowest power point and get out the other side,” Banerdt said.
Still, a strange dust storm over the next four or five months could tip the scales by piling more dirt on InSight’s solar panels. That’s what happened to Opportunity. Fortunately, it is not dust storm season.
“We think we’re doing pretty well, but Mars is unpredictable. We never know exactly what’s going to happen,” Banerdt said.
This article was originally published by Business Insider.
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