InSight lander sets power record on its first full day on Mars

[Judi Lynn]

Nick Lavars
5 hours ago

Less than a week has passed since NASA's Insight spacecraft settled into its dusty landing site on the surface of Mars, but the intrepid science laboratory is already breaking new ground. Data sent back to Earth has confirmed that not only is the lander in full working order, it has claimed a new record for power generation on the Red Planet.

Insight touched down on Mars last Monday after a seven-month journey, with images and telemetry data continuing to verify the lander is in a good state and functioning just as it was designed to do. That includes relaying photos of itself and the landing site, which NASA describes as a "large sandbox," and deploying the solar arrays it will use to power its scientific endeavors.

Without those solar panels, InSight's batteries can only keep the lander running for a matter of hours, so a successful unfurling was kind of a big deal. NASA had to wait for the Odyssey orbiter to fly overhead to confirm they had been successfully deployed. But also important to its energy-generation pursuits is its placement on the surface of Mars. If InSight touched down on too steep a slope, alongside a huge rock or facing the wrong direction, that could seriously hamper its ability to draw power from the Sun.

More:
https://newatlas.com/insight-power-record-mars/57480/