But InSight
A robotic probe stationary on Mars, is steadily getting weaker as dust builds up on its solar panels.
Mission Managers Predict That By Late
Summer it will not have enough power to keep its machines running and that by the end of the year it will shut down.
Cathia Zamora Garcia
“It’s just because of the lack of power,” deputy project scientist for the mission, said during a news conference on Tuesday.
The Spacecraft Could Be In Luck
If a dust demon — a miniature whirlwind swirling along the Martian Earth — passes and blows dust off the solar panels.
Although Several
Thousand dust demons were discovered in the area, none of them helped clean up InSight.
Bruce Banerdt Said
“We’re not very optimistic given that three and a half years have passed and we haven’t seen one yet,” The principal investigator at InSight, “but it still could happen.”