(ORDO NEWS) — Over the past few months , the InSight lander , designed to study the tectonic activity of the Red Planet, has been consuming less and less power as its 4.2-square-meter solar array gradually disappeared under a thick layer of Martian dust.
On December 21, NASA announced that no signals had been received from the lander for several days , so the agency officially announced that its exploration mission was over.
Many netizens have been actively following the last days of InSight and bombarding NASA with questions: “Why does the module lack wipers, blowers, etc., which would help InSight cope with dust and sand.”
NASA replied that such a system would increase the cost of launching the module, adding mass and complexity to it.
However, there is a solution, according to the engineers of the space agency: “The best and simplest solution is to choose the optimal size and tilt of the solar panels so that they can receive more sunlight, and so that dust moves off them.”
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