NASA’s Insight lander will soon be put down and abandoned on Mars and will gather dust, like it has been for some time. The dusty demise of the Martian robot is expected in July later this year, NASA announced on Tuesday.

Bruce Banerdt, a scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory said, “There really hasn’t been too much doom and gloom on the team. We’re really still focused on operating the spacecraft”, Associated Press reported.

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The main job of the Insight lander was to detect, analyse and report any marsquakes on the red planet. The spacecraft has reported more than 1,300 such marsquakes after it landed on Mars in 2018. The strongest marsquake was reported earlier this month and was reported at a 5 magnitude.

Why is there a dusty demise in Insight’s fate?

Unlike NASA’s Curiosity and Perseverance rovers, the Insight lander followed tradition and was fueled by solar energy. The Insight lander is losing power because of all the dust on its solar panels. 

In Insight’s case, it’s been a gradual gathering of dust, especially over the past year, Associated Press reported citing NASA statements. The insight will be NASA’s second Mars lander lost to dust: A global dust storm took out Opportunity in 2018.

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Insight currently is generating about 10% of the power from the sun than it did upon arrival. Deputy project manager Kathya Zamora Garcia said the lander initially had enough power to run an electric oven for one hour and 40 minutes, but now it is down to roughly 10 minutes.

What’s next?

NASA plans to juice all of Insight’s power till it lasts. The space agency announced that the spacecraft will communicate and report marsquakes until the power is completely drained. The spacecraft would still be monitored for nearly six months before its abandonment.