NASA's InSight Mars lander awakens from 'safe mode' after Red Planet dust storm
The Marsquake-hunting mission will pause science for the time being.
A NASA spacecraft has safely emerged from a precautionary "safe mode" after an intense Martian dust storm.
The solar-powered InSight lander, which is designed to study the interior of Mars, entered safe mode to save power on Jan. 7; it went back to "more normal operations" by Jan. 19, the mission said in a Twitter update.
"Skies seem to be clearing overhead, so I'm out of safe mode and back to more normal operations," the tweet stated. "I'll wait to start doing more science until I know how much power I can expect to generate once the storm settles."
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which manages the mission, had expressed optimism earlier in the month that InSight would leave safe mode in about a week. While that prediction was just about right, reduced power will be a big factor to InSight's science production in the coming months.
Related: Photos of NASA's InSight mission to probe the Red Planet's core
InSight, which landed on the Red Planet in 2018, is already working on reduced power due to normal buildup of dust on the two solar powers. While engineers managed to take off the dust on one panel in 2021 using the lander's robotic arm, NASA has said such a procedure becomes more difficult as power diminishes.
InSight removed the dust by drizzling a trickle of sand on the solar panel. While other NASA missions such as Opportunity and its twin rover Spirit have been lucky enough to get windy "cleanups" of dust on the solar panels, InSight hasn't been close enough to a dust devil to get that same benefit.
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Last year, NASA warned that reduced power on the mission could end InSight activities sometime in 2022. The planet reached its greatest orbital distance from the sun last year, and seasonal cycles of dust activity were also deemed a threat.
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Elizabeth Howell (she/her), Ph.D., is a staff writer in the spaceflight channel since 2022 covering diversity, education and gaming as well. She was contributing writer for Space.com for 10 years before joining full-time. Elizabeth's reporting includes multiple exclusives with the White House and Office of the Vice-President of the United States, an exclusive conversation with aspiring space tourist (and NSYNC bassist) Lance Bass, speaking several times with the International Space Station, witnessing five human spaceflight launches on two continents, flying parabolic, working inside a spacesuit, and participating in a simulated Mars mission. Her latest book, "Why Am I Taller?", is co-written with astronaut Dave Williams. Elizabeth holds a Ph.D. and M.Sc. in Space Studies from the University of North Dakota, a Bachelor of Journalism from Canada's Carleton University and a Bachelor of History from Canada's Athabasca University. Elizabeth is also a post-secondary instructor in communications and science at several institutions since 2015; her experience includes developing and teaching an astronomy course at Canada's Algonquin College (with Indigenous content as well) to more than 1,000 students since 2020. Elizabeth first got interested in space after watching the movie Apollo 13 in 1996, and still wants to be an astronaut someday. Mastodon: https://qoto.org/@howellspace