Maybe the Pioneer Mars probe just sent home the last scary photo

it’s almost time Say goodbye to another Martian friend. Many missions to the Red Planet fell silent for the last time, some after years of successful data collection, and others after a brief free fall like a fireball. We will soon be adding another Mars explorer to this ever-growing list. understanding Maybe he sent his last photo home.

about A photo He himself is like hundreds of others that the probe has sent to Earth over the past four years. In the center of the image is a vehicle seismometer designed to collect data about it. concentrates And whose data was used in dozens of articles. However, in this image, it is clearly covered in the fine red dust that coats everything on the red planet.

This photo was taken on November 6, 2022:

This dust also covers the InSight power supply. The solar panels have been encapsulated en masse, and so they can supply less and less power to the lander itself. Unfortunately, InSight has also been lucky or unlucky in the area of ​​general calm for the Martian dust demons. While the tools themselves can be difficult to handle, dust devils are also great at cleaning up dusty solar panels.

Another fact of dust accumulation is a design decision made by the InSight team at an early stage of the project. Several methods can help remove dust from solar panels. Compressed air vanes and vanes similar to those used in automobiles are the most common. But InSight engineers decided not to include such systems in their probe.

Making these decisions is one of the hardest parts of engineering. Dust removal systems add weight and are therefore costly both to develop and transport to Mars. Startup costs are still a significant part of the project budget, so each system is checked to see if it is really needed. In the Insight case, the team determined that the dust removal system was not working.

There was one critical factor that led to this decision – the relatively short duration of the Insight mission as a whole. It was planned to last only one year on Earth. Finished with four.

What’s next for InSight

Even without a dust extraction system, the mission far exceeded all initial expectations. Insight has cemented its place as one of the most productive Martian probes to date. Their data formed the basis of dozens of papers, and we came to understand everything from the presence (or absence) of liquid water around the probe to the discovery of magma in the same area.

Such data would make any scientific group proud, and the Insight participants had enough time to see how the end was approaching. UT first reported food problems in May. But while it has been gaining momentum over the past six months, it may soon be time to say goodbye to land-based exploration with seismic, geodetic and thermal transport research missions. It will not be forgotten and may even be brought back to life one day when people finally set foot in landscapes that no one has yet seen.

This article was originally published Universe today by Andy Thomasvik. read Original article here.