A thin layer of Martian dust can be seen coating InSight in this selfie taken by the Instrument Deployment Camera on the lander’s robotic arm. The image is made up of 14 shots captured March 15 and April 11, 2019, the 106th and 133rd Martian days, or sols, of the mission.
NASA will hold a media teleconference at 2 p.m. EDT (11 a.m. PDT) on Tuesday, May 17, to provide an update on the agency’s InSight Mars lander. NASA leadership and mission team members will highlight InSight’s science accomplishments, share details on the spacecraft’s power situation, and discuss its future.
Audio of the briefing, as well as supporting graphics, will livestream at:
The teleconference participants will include:
- Lori Glaze, director of NASA’s Planetary Science Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington
- Bruce Banerdt, InSight principal investigator, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California
- Kathya Zamora Garcia, InSight deputy project manager, JPL
The public can submit questions on social media during the teleconference using #AskNASA.
InSight landed in the Elysium Planitia region of Mars in November 2018 with the goal of studying the planet’s deep interior for the first time, using seismic signals to learn more about the properties of the crust, mantle, and core. Answering these questions helps shed light on how all rocky worlds form, including Earth and its Moon.
After InSight met the goals of its two-year-long prime mission, NASA extended the mission until December 2022. However, due to dust accumulation on its solar panels, InSight’s electrical power production is dropping, and the mission is unlikely to continue operations for the duration of its current extended mission unless its solar panels are cleared by a passing “dust devil” in Mars’ atmosphere.
Visuals to accompany the teleconference will be available shortly before it starts at:
NASA and InSight leaders will share the latest on the pioneering spacecraft’s science findings and discuss future milestones for the mission.