INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
NASA has formally retired its Mars InSight lander, the first robotic probe specially designed to study the deep interior of a distant world,
four years after it arrived on the surface of the red planet, the US space agency announced on Wednesday.Mission controllers at NASA&s Jet
Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) near Los Angeles determined the mission was over when two consecutive attempts to re-establish radio contact
with the lander failed, a sign that InSight&s solar-powered batteries had run out of energy, Reuters reported.NASA predicted in late October
that the spacecraft would reach the end of its operational life in a matter of weeks due to increasingly heavy accumulations of dust on its
solar panels, depleting the ability of its batteries to recharge.JPL engineers will continue to listen for a signal from the lander, just in
case, but hearing from InSight again is unlikely, NASA said
The three-legged stationary probe last communicated with Earth on Dec
15.According to Reuters InSight landed on Mars in late November 2018 with instruments designed to detect planetary seismic rumblings never
before measured anywhere but Earth, and its original two-year mission was later extended to four.From its perch in a vast and relatively
flat plain called Elysium Planitia just north of the planet&s equator, the lander has helped scientists gain new understanding of Mars&
internal structure.Researchers said InSight&s data revealed the thickness of the planet&s outer crust, the size and density of its inner
core and the structure of the mantle that lies in between.One of InSight&s chief accomplishments was establishing that the red planet is,
indeed, seismically active, recording more than 1,300 marsquakes
It also measured seismic waves generated by meteorite impacts, read the report.&The seismic data alone from this discovery program mission
offers tremendous insights not just into Mars but other rocky bodies, including Earth,& said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of
NASA&s science mission directorate.One such impact a year ago was found to have gouged boulder-sized chunks of water ice surprisingly close
to Mars& equator.Even as InSight retires, a more recent robotic visitor to the red planet, NASA&s science rover Perseverance, continues to
prepare a collection of Martian mineral samples for future analysis on Earth.This week, Perseverance deposited the first of 10 sample tubes
it was directed to leave at a surface collection site on Mars as a backup cache, in case the primary supply stored in the rover&s belly
cannot for some reason be transferred as planned to a retrieval spacecraft in the future, NASA said.The post NASA formally retires Mars
InSight lander after 4-year mission first appeared on Ariana News.
