[imagesource: NASA]

Up top is NASA’s InSight Mars lander taking its very first selfie in 2018 as it landed on the Red Planet.

The data-collecting lander has spent over 1 200 Martian days, or sols, on the dusty desert planet.

But now its work is coming to end as it gets ready to fold its robotic arm into a final resting position called “retirement pose”.

This is not necessarily the decision of the InSight team on Earth, but rather a necessity after all the red Martian dust that the poor machine has collected over time.

The stationary spacecraft captured its last selfie on April 24, showing just how enveloped its solar panels have become by the planet’s relentless dust.

InSight gave us the news via Twitter with a GIF showing the spacecraft’s first selfie in December 2018 followed by its final one:

Before losing more solar energy, I took some time to take in my surroundings and snapped my final selfie before I rest my arm and camera permanently in the stowed position.

More on my final months ahead: https://t.co/eATDXbOlx2 pic.twitter.com/q7gso8NSjv

— NASA InSight (@NASAInSight) May 24, 2022

InSight has become really intimate with our mysterious planetary neighbour, collecting data that has revealed amazing details about the planet’s core, interior layers, and crust, reported CNN.

It has also recorded weather data and analysed the remains of the magnetic field that once existed on Mars.

Even now, towards the end of its mission, it’s detecting some cool activity, per Mashable:

Just recently, the lander detected its largest quake yet, the strongest temblor ever detected on another planet. It was a magnitude 5 quake, something potent enough to be felt regionally on Earth, but a true “monster” for Mars. The seismic event underscored that Mars isn’t nearly dead, geologically.

“Mars remains active, just not as active as Earth,” Mark Panning, a planetary scientist and NASA’s InSight lander project manager, told Mashable.

Alas, InSight’s successful, nearly four-year mission will be completely over soon.

All that red dust makes it impossible for the lander to get the solar power needed to further investigate Mars’ interior, so NASA expects to shut InSight’s science mission down, particularly its temblor-detecting seismometer.

It used to be able to collect enough power, equivalent to what it takes to power an electric oven for an hour and 40 minutes, but now it only has enough power for 10 minutes.

If only a “dust cleaning” would have occurred from the planet’s frequent dust devils or whirlwinds, but unfortunately not.

Oh well, good knowing you, InSight.

[sources:cnn&mashable]