NASA's InSight space probe, which touched down on the surface of Mars less than four years ago, is nearing the end of its operational life. Martian dust has, over time, accumulated on its solar panels, preventing the probe from recharging. InSight is to be placed in low-power mode for detecting seismic events in July 2022. All operations will end in December. When InSight landed in a flat landscape known as Elysium Planitia on 26th November 2018, its wings produced about 5000 Watt hours per sol (Martian day). Today, coloured red from dust, they can produce only one-tenth as much. Efforts have been made to try to clean the wings. InSight has a scoop and by sprinkling dust on to the wings it had the effect of knocking off some of the dust already there. Recent attempts have failed, however.

​​​​​​​9th June 2022

InSight, which is short for INterior exploration Using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport, has transformed our understanding of the Red Planet's geology. The probe used its instruments to study the size and composition of Mars' interior. Its seismometer was used to detect "marsquakes" (Martian earthquakes). The quakes send seismic waves racing through the interior of Mars. The strength of the waves and the speed at which they travel depend upon the composition of the material they pass through. The data InSight's seismometer collected over a long period has enabled scientists to map Mars’ internal structure in detail for the first time.
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We now know that Mars’ iron core, where most of the planet’s heat originates from, is slightly larger than expected, with a radius of 1831 kilometres (1137 miles), compared to the planet's full radius of 3390 kilometres (2106 miles). The presence of sulphur in the core acts to lower the temperature at which the core solidifies. Consequently, Mars’ core remains completely liquid, despite the amount of heat escaping.

​​​​​​​Heat escapes from Mars' core more readily than it does from the interior of the Earth. This is because the layer inside the Earth's lower mantle made up of a mineral called bridgmanite, which acts as a barrier to heat currents rising from the core, is absent from Mars' interior.

InSight has recorded more than 1300 marsquakes in all. Most were probably caused by heating and cooling. As the planet cools and shrinks, its rocks break along faults, lines of weakness. This sudden fracturing releases the seismic waves picked up by InSight's seismometer.

The Magnitude 5 tremor of Mat 2022 was the biggest event yet. Mission team members think it occurred close to a region called Cerberus Fossae, which lies about 1500 kilometres (900 miles) to the east of InSight's location and is a major source of quakes. Two huge parallel fissures run across the landscape for 1000 kilometres (600 miles).