The most recent marsquake sensed
Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2025 8:19 am
Just last month, NASA warned “the end is expected to come in the next few weeks.”
“There will be no heroic measures to re-establish contact with InSight,” NASA wrote. “While a mission-saving event – a strong gust of wind, say, that cleans the panels off — isn’t out of the question, it is considered unlikely.”
The team will keep trying to contact InSight, just in case.
InSight landed on Mars in 2018 and was the first spacecraft to document a marsquake. It detected more than 1,300 marsquakes with its French-built seismometer, including several caused by meteoroid strikes. by InSight, earlier this year, left the ground shaking for at least six hours, according to NASA.
The seismometer readings shed light on Mars’ interior.
Just last week, scientists revealed that InSight scored another first, capturing a Martian dust devil not just in pictures, but sound. In a stroke of luck, the whirling column of dust blew directly over the lander in 2021 when its microphone was on.
8613-insight-nature-papers-web.jpg
In this artist’s concept of NASA’s InSight lander on Mars, layers telegram database of the planet’s subsurface can be seen below and dust devils can be seen in the background.
IPGP/Nicolas Sarter
The lander’s other main instrument, however, encountered nothing but trouble.
A German digging device – meant to measure the temperature of Mars’ interior – never made it deeper than a couple feet (half a meter), well short of the intended 16 feet (5 meters). NASA declared it dead nearly two years ago.
InSight recently sent back one last selfie, shared by NASA via Twitter on Monday.
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.
“There will be no heroic measures to re-establish contact with InSight,” NASA wrote. “While a mission-saving event – a strong gust of wind, say, that cleans the panels off — isn’t out of the question, it is considered unlikely.”
The team will keep trying to contact InSight, just in case.
InSight landed on Mars in 2018 and was the first spacecraft to document a marsquake. It detected more than 1,300 marsquakes with its French-built seismometer, including several caused by meteoroid strikes. by InSight, earlier this year, left the ground shaking for at least six hours, according to NASA.
The seismometer readings shed light on Mars’ interior.
Just last week, scientists revealed that InSight scored another first, capturing a Martian dust devil not just in pictures, but sound. In a stroke of luck, the whirling column of dust blew directly over the lander in 2021 when its microphone was on.
8613-insight-nature-papers-web.jpg
In this artist’s concept of NASA’s InSight lander on Mars, layers telegram database of the planet’s subsurface can be seen below and dust devils can be seen in the background.
IPGP/Nicolas Sarter
The lander’s other main instrument, however, encountered nothing but trouble.
A German digging device – meant to measure the temperature of Mars’ interior – never made it deeper than a couple feet (half a meter), well short of the intended 16 feet (5 meters). NASA declared it dead nearly two years ago.
InSight recently sent back one last selfie, shared by NASA via Twitter on Monday.
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.