The farewell message from InSight – the robotic lander operating on the Red Planet – was recently released by NASA on Twitter and Facebook.
“My power is now very low, so this may be the last image I send back. Don’t worry about me: My time here has been both productive and peaceful. If I can continue to communicate with my mission team, I will. But I will soon sign off from here. Thank you for being with me.” – This is the “farewell” message from InSight that NASA has published.
NASA’s InSight Lander – (Photo: NASA).
InSight is one of the three Martian exploration warriors currently operational at NASA, alongside Curiosity and Perseverance. However, unlike the other two robots, InSight operates as a research station. It is stationed at a site located at the boundary between the southern volcanic highlands and the flat northern plains of Mars.
Since its landing in November 2018, InSight’s primary mission has been to monitor the internal activity of the planet through sophisticated seismological instruments.
The greatest discovery made by this robot has been to confirm that Mars is not a dead planet; there is still internal activity: earthquakes and possibly even volcanism.
This is golden information for scientists, helping them not only to understand more about the history and evolution of the planet but also to map Mars and add hope to the search for life on the Red Planet.
The geological activity is crucial for maintaining the necessary elements for life; for instance, volcanoes provide heat for underground water reservoirs, making them potentially habitable in Mars’ frigid environment.
If the signs of volcanic activity detected by InSight are verified, it would mean that there is theoretically life in the underground lakes of Mars, even in the present.
Previously, other Martian exploration warriors had been fortunate to find this building block of life, such as Curiosity, but NASA had only dared to think about ancient life, as the current environmental conditions on Mars have hindered the possibility of life still existing.
However, the insights from InSight could change the game. Therefore, even though this lander may be “dead,” its legacy will continue to assist scientists effectively on the journey to prove that we are not alone in the universe.
Like other landers, InSight operates on solar energy, and after a long period, its solar panels have become too dusty to function effectively. InSight will officially be declared “dead” when it has completely lost connection and its human “colleagues” on Earth fail to make contact twice.
A few years ago, NASA’s Curiosity lander (which landed in 2012) experienced months of inactivity due to a planet-wide dust storm that blocked its solar energy source. However, this lucky robot unexpectedly re-established communication with Earth after the dust storm subsided, continuing a series of extended missions even after its primary mission had concluded years earlier.
