It is possible that the last picture taken from the surface of Mars was transmitted by the InSight landers. The landers ability to generate energy from its solar panels has been declining in recent weeks.

When a lander or a rover is silent, it is sad. They all have a personality that goes with their mission. We knew for a long time that this day would come.

My power’s really low, so this may be the last image I can send. Don’t worry about me though: my time here has been both productive and serene. If I can keep talking to my mission team, I will – but I’ll be signing off here soon. Thanks for staying with me. pic.twitter.com/wkYKww15kQ

— NASA InSight (@NASAInSight) December 19, 2022

It was still a complex, ambitious mission even though it wasn't a rover. The landers HP 3 was designed to measure heat flow from the inside to the surface. The GermanAerospace Center designed and built the instrument, but they couldn't get it deep enough to produce science.

This image shows the difficulty that InSight's Heat Probe (HP3) faced. Due to the nature of Martian regolith, it kept popping out of its hole. In this image, mission operators tried using the lander's scoop to press on the probe's hole. They hoped that would provide the friction necessary for the hammering action to be effective. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
This image shows the difficulty that InSight’s Heat Probe (HP3) faced. Due to the nature of Martian regolith, it kept popping out of its hole. In this image, mission operators tried using the lander’s scoop to press on the probe’s hole. They hoped that would provide the friction necessary for the hammering action to be effective. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The landers didn't respond to communications from Earth on December 18. We always hope that the decline in power will be short lived. NASA's record of Mars rovers last longer than expected. It appears that the end is here.

The last time NASA talked to the landers was December 15th. Four years is how long InSight's mission lasted. The landers instruments worked well despite the struggles with HP 3.

The French Space Agency built the SEIS instrument, which was InSight's main instrument. SEIS was deployed by the landers on December 19th. SEIS was able to detect Marsquakes and a meteorite impact that caused a 150 km crater.

NASA’s InSight lander placed its seismometer onto Mars on Dec. 19, 2018. This was the first time a spacecraft robotically placed a seismometer onto the surface of another planet. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

SEIS was able to reveal information about their location on Mars by measuring over 1300 events.

Evidence of recent geological activity can be seen in a large cluster of those events.

This image is a vertical plan view of Cerberus Fossae. The pair of trenches are very young and formed from volcanic activity only a few million years ago. Image Credit: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

The purpose of SEIS was to figure out what Mars was like. The thickness of the crust was only 25 to 40 kilometers. The top layer of the crust is only about 10 km in thickness.

The core of Mars is larger than thought and less dense than the lower crust, according to SEIS. Lighter elements mixed with molten iron in the core lowers its density, which explains how the core can still be molten even after cooling a lot.

By reading how vibrations from impacts and Marsquakes travelled through the planet, SEIS gave scientists the data they needed to understand Mars' interior structure. Image Credit: S. Cottaar, P. Koelemeijer, J. Winterbourne, NASA.
By reading how vibrations from impacts and Marsquakes travelled through the planet, SEIS gave scientists the data they needed to understand Mars’ interior structure. Image Credit: S. Cottaar, P. Koelemeijer, J. Winterbourne, NASA.

There was an effort to understand Mars and if it was a good place to live. It discovered some of the planet's geological history by probing the planet's interior. The case for ancient habitability has been strengthened by the fact that the planet's magnetic field may have been stronger than shown in the satellite pictures.

NASA is correct in saying that InSight was a success. At the end of the mission, we know a lot more about Mars than we did before. It is sad that it is over. If HP 3 had worked, what else could we have learned?

landerInSight landerInSightImage Credit
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