Insight Mars spacecraft may be lost, and Perseverance helicopter refuses to take off - NASA spoke about the problems

The Martian probe Insight was covered in dust and, by and large, is at a complete stop. And the first aircraft on Mars was unable to fly due to software problems. These problems were discussed at the NASA space agency.

What problems did Earth vehicles face on Mars?

The NASA Insight spacecraft, located on the surface of Mars, was in critical condition and there is even a possibility of its complete loss for scientists.

So the $ 800 million lander, which was planted on the surface of the red planet in 2018, by this time made a huge number of scientific discoveries (including 500 Marsquakes and 10 thousand so-called dust devils) are in a deplorable condition.

For several months, the agency's engineers have been in a constant struggle for the apparatus due to the unpredictability of the Martian weather. So, unlike other regions of Mars, the area where the Insight landed turned out to be extremely poor in sharp gusts of wind. This means that "cleansing events" cannot blow away the dust covering the probe's solar panels.

Without wind, the dust thickens the battery and thus greatly hinders the generation of electricity.

So in the month of February, when the calendar winter began in that part of Mars, the panels of the device were able to produce only 27% of the nominal power. For this reason, NASA engineers put the device into austerity mode and began to turn off various devices.

And if the situation does not radically change, then very soon it will be necessary to turn off all Insights that are not critical for survival.

All scientific work was also temporarily stopped, since the Lender needs enough energy to heat up the electronics when the temperature drops to extreme -90 degrees Celsius.

At the moment, the situation has not changed and engineers say that there is a significant risk of losing the device completely. So engineers hope that the generated energy will be enough to hold out until the Martian summer, when the Sun heats the area to acceptable temperatures.

Then Insight will be able to continue scientific work until 2022. If the batteries of the device still lose their entire charge, then the device will go into the so-called “zombie” state and only one command to revive it will be available to it when the Sun is high.

But experts do not like this scenario very much. Since there is a high probability that sensitive electronics will not withstand such low temperatures and will refuse to work.

It is likely that the Spirit and Opportunity devices have suffered the same fate.

But the problems don't end there. There is also no good news from the first Ingenuity flying machine on Mars.

So, according to NASA's plans, the first helicopter flight on Mars was supposed to take place on April 11 of this year. Before the flight, engineers tested the helicopter systems and during an extreme test, when the blades of the device were spun up to 2400 rpm, abnormal signals were recorded coming from systems that are responsible for rotation screw.

These signals began to arrive when an attempt was made to switch the flight computer from pre-flight to take-off mode.

After analyzing the data, NASA engineers established that everything is in order with the hardware of the device, but a software update is needed. Updating the code via the rover's communication lines will take a significant amount of time. Therefore, the first flight can take place only in a week.

These are the problems that Mars explorers face. If you liked the material, please rate it and do not forget to subscribe to the channel. Thank you for your attention!