NASA shares InSight's last selfie taken on Mars as lander nears retirement this month

NASA’s InSight Mars lander is nearing its retirement this month as its solar panels are covered in Martian dust. Owing to the increasing dust on the panels, InSight’s power supply has been significantly reduced which is prompting engineers to shut it down. Earlier today, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) shared what could be InSight’s last selfie on the red planet. 

The agency shared a GIF on Twitter that compared two selfies taken by InSight during its early days in December 2018 and the one taken on April 24 this year. "The arm needs to move several times in order to capture a full selfie. Because InSight's dusty solar panels are producing less power, the team will soon put the lander's robotic arm in its resting position (called the "retirement pose") for the last time in May of 2022", JPL said in a statement.

What's happening with InSight?

While the lander will enter its retirement phase possibly later this month, it will completely run out of power in July, NASA has estimated. InSight had landed on Mars in November 2018 to study the red planet's interior and has so far detected over 1,313 Marsquakes. Recently, the lander recorded the strongest ever quake on Mars, making it the biggest rumble detected on another planet. 

InSight has a pair of solar panels that each measures about 7 feet (2.2 meters) wide and is currently on an extended mission. According to the mission team, it was designed to achieve its objectives in one Mars year, which is two Earth years. JPL, which handles the Martian explorer will continue to register the Marsquakes using its seismometer before InSight meets its 'demise'.

 As of now, InSight's solar panels are producing roughly 500 watt-hours per sol (Martian day), which is enough to power the same electric oven for just 10 minutes. This is significantly less than what they used to produce when InSight landed- around 5,000 watt-hours each Martian day, or sol – enough to power an electric oven for an hour and 40 minutes.