NASA’s InSight mission is dying a slow death. The lander, which is located in the Elysium Planitia area of Mars, has been gradually collecting more and more dust which has been blocking its solar panels. As the dust builds up, the amount of power the panels can generate gets lower and lower.
The gradually dropping power availability and the upcoming end of the mission aren’t a surprise to the mission team, who have been preparing for this throughout this year. Previous creative attempts to keep the mission going such as by having the lander take a dust shower have helped prolong its life, but power levels have now dropped to just 275 watt-hours per Martian day during the dust storm.
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