Photos show: Dead robot on Mars still doing useful work for NASA

NASA’s InSight lander may be retired on Mars, but the robot continues to provide the space agency with valuable information.

On November 26, 2018, the lander launched its Mars mission: It collects data about the structure of the planet, its seismic activity and the frequency of meteorites. Then in December 2022, the robot ran out of power and sent one final image. It has been declared “dead” in news reports including The New York Times and The Independent.

Recently, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter checked on its retired colleague and sent back an image of the InSight lander on the planet’s surface. Even if the lander can’t send images, its mere existence on the Red Planet continues to provide insights (no pun intended).

“By studying InSight’s landing site over a longer period of time, scientists can see how quickly dust accumulates, which helps estimate the age of other surface disturbances,” NASA said in a May 6 post on its NASA Mars Account on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

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What happened to NASA’s Insight lander?

After its launch in May 2018, InSight – the acronym for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport – traveled around 300 million miles from Earth to Mars in 6.5 months.

The lander had a robotic arm (with a built-in camera) that could deploy a heat probe and a seismometer to collect data.

According to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, meteorite impacts and over 1,300 marsquakes were recorded during the mission.

As the mission progressed, dust collected on the solar panels. Still, the robot outlasted its original mission by two Earth years, Space.com reported.

Shortly before the robot ran out of power, NASA posted a farewell note from InSight on social media: “My power is really low, so this may be the last image I can send. Don’t worry about me though: my time here has been both productive and serene. If I can continue to talk to my mission team, I will be signing off here soon. Thank you for staying with me.

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is also a workhorse: Since its launch in 2005, it has more than doubled its expected lifespan and is expected to be in service for several more years.

As the name suggests, it orbits Mars and captures high-resolution images, including images of a canyon on Mars that, if based in the United States, would range from New York City to San Francisco.

The orbiter’s snapshots of the InSight robot on Mars help continue its colleague’s contributions.

“InSight has more than lived up to its name,” said JPL Director Laurie Leshin upon its decommissioning. “Yes, it’s sad to say goodbye, but InSight’s legacy will live on to inform and inspire.”

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