Things are getting tougher on Mars for NASA’s InSight lander. A continent-sized Martian dust storm that erupted in late September is putting additional strain on the spacecraft’s power supply. In early October, NASA noticed a large drop in the energy available to the ground with solar power. “By Monday, Oct. 3, the storm had grown large enough and was kicking up so much dust that the thickness of the dusty haze in the Martian atmosphere had increased by nearly 40 percent around InSight,” the agency said in a statement Friday. With the onset of the storm, the landing craft was no longer able to fully charge its batteries. A world map of Mars from late September 2022 showing the locations of InSight, Curiosity and Perseverance. Beige clouds indicate a local dust storm. NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS The lander’s solar arrays were already caked in dust, a condition that has left it with little power as it nears the end of its mission. The InSight team had turned off most of the lander’s instruments, leaving only the seismometer running to try to detect as many earthquakes as possible for as long as possible. NASA was looking at late 2022 or early 2023 to say goodbye to InSight, but that timeline is up in the air. “At the current discharge rate, the craft could only operate for several weeks,” NASA said. “So to conserve power, the mission will turn off InSight’s seismometer for the next two weeks.” There is some good news in that the regional storm may have peaked and will soon taper off. NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is monitoring the storm from above and has seen signs of the storm’s growth slowing. InSight has had both triumphs and challenges since landing on Mars in 2018. It has revealed new information about the red planet’s interior and recorded earthquake activity, including a monster of a seaquake earlier this year. InSight’s plight will inevitably bring back memories of NASA’s late Opportunity rover, which fell victim to a massive global dust storm. Opportunity’s mission was finally declared complete in 2019. NASA’s newest rovers, Curiosity and Perseverance, are nuclear-powered and not subject to the vagaries of Martian dust. InSight’s final days will remain uncertain for now. Said InSight project manager Chuck Scott, “If we can get through this, we can continue to operate through the winter — but I would worry about the next storm that comes.”
