This may be NASA InSight lander’s last image from Mars

NASA InSight lander's potential last image of Mars (Image: NASAInSight/Twitter)

NASA’s InSight lander may have sent across its final image from Mars after landing on the Red Planet more than four years ago. “My power’s really low, so this may be the last image I can send,” the InSight team posted on Twitter Monday.

“Don’t worry about me though: my time here has been both productive and serene,” the message continued. “If I can keep talking to my mission team, I will – but I’ll be signing off here soon. Thanks for staying with me.”

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

The image shows the lander’s dome-covered seismometer on the dusty surface of Mars, according to CNET. It was taken using the lander-mounted Instrument Context Camera or ICC.

“Distortion from the wide-angle lens bends the distant horizon into a curved shape, while low-angle sunlight causes a small bluish lens flare on the right side,” NASA said of the picture, which is dated December 11 on InSight’s raw image feed.

InSight, short for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport, is a robotic lander designed to study the interior of Mars. It landed on the Red Planet in November 2018, and the data it has sent back since then has helped scientists better understand the composition of the planet’s core and other layers.

NASA will end the mission after the lander fails to communicate with the Earth two times in a row. In November this year, the American space agency had warned that the InSight’s end was fast approaching as dust accumulated on its solar panels.

“The spacecraft’s power generation continues to decline as windblown dust on its solar panels thickens. The end is expected to come in the next few weeks,” NASA said in an update posted November 2.