NASA recently shared an image showing the accumulation of Martian dust on the solar panels of the Interior exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy, and Heat Transport (InSight) Mars lander. The photo above was taken on April 24, 2022.
The Mars Insight lander was launched May 5, 2018 to study the interior of Mars. The lander already accomplished its primary mission and has been on extended mission. It has detected more than 1,300 marsquakes. However, as a result of the dust buildup, the mission is expected to end this summer.
In the NASA news release, Lori Glaze, director of NASA’s Planetary Science Division, stated:
InSight has transformed our understanding of the interiors of rocky planets and set the stage for future missions…We can apply what we’ve learned about Mars’ inner structure to Earth, the Moon, Venus, and even rocky planets in other solar systems.
You may recall an earlier posting about Martian dust and its impact on another mission.
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