NASA recovers Insight lander from safe mode as skies get cleared on Mars

NASA has finally recovered its Mars Insight lander from safe mode after its power supply was hindered owing to a strong regional dust storm on red planet. Providing an update via Twitter, NASA informed that lander is longer in safe mode and Insight team will begin operations soon. "Our @NASAInSight lander has exited "safe mode" after a recent Martian dust storm forced it to conserve energy. Teams aim to resume science operations next week for marsquake-detecting probe", NASA wrote on Twitter.

team handling rover also revealed that skies are getting cleared, although, engineers would wait for a few more days before beginning rmal operations. "Skies seem to be clearing overhead, so I’m out of safe mode and back to more rmal operations", Insight's tweet read. "I’ll wait to start doing more science until I kw how much power I can expect to generate once storm settles", it added.

Why was Insight in safe mode?

lander, which landed on Mars in 2018 to study red planet’s inner structure, was put into safe mode to conserve energy as dust settling on solar panels had significantly reduced power supply. Power conservation is an essential factor in keeping instruments alive as a higher us and less supply would result in a condition faced by NASA's Opportunity rover. Opportunity was declared 'dead' in 2018 after a massive dust storm that blanketed Mars covered rover's solar panels thus completely cutting power supply. 

NASA had revealed that recent dust storm was detected by Mars Color Imr (MARCI) camera fitted on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter which informed Insight of approaching danger. With this camera, scientists are able to create coloured maps of entire planet every day, which can be used to monitor dust storms and issue early warnings. However, if dust storms cause a short of power, y also help in clearing dust accumulated on solar panels from previous storms. While clearing of solar panels is still awaited, NASA had assured that Insight was t in trouble as re was a constant supply of power despite dust layer.