Citizen / General public
Researcher
Student / Future student
Company
Public partner
Journalist
Teacher / Pupil

InSight regains energy after cleaning its solar panels

The SEIS experiment, part of NASA's Insight mission and operated and distributed by IPGP as part of the InSight National Observing Service (NOS), will run longer than expected when Mars is at its furthest from the Sun.

InSight regains energy after cleaning its solar panels

Publication date: 26/06/2021

General public, Observatories, Press, Research

Related observatories : InSight Observatory

The JPL team has succeeded in cleaning the solar panels, on which dust had accumulated since the landing 2 and a half years ago. By collecting Martian sand from the lander and sprinkling it near the solar panels during the windiest hour of the Martian day, the grains of sand carried away by the wind also washed away the fine dust that had accumulated in their path. The surplus energy recovered in this way will also be used to continue burying the SEIS seismometer cable, thereby improving the noise level of the experiment.

Latest news
Director position of the Institut de physique du globe de Paris (IPGP)
Director position of the Institut de physique du globe de Paris (IPGP)
The position of Director of the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris (IPGP) is vacant as of March 24, 2026.
IPGP is now on Twitch!
IPGP is now on Twitch!
Following on from the MOOC Notre Planète (Our Planet), which is still open for enrolment, the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris is launching its ...
Three ERC advanced grants awarded to the IPGP: new advances in cosmochemistry and planetary sciences
Three ERC advanced grants awarded to the IPGP: new advances in cosmochemistry and planetary sciences
The Institut de physique du globe de Paris (IPGP) has just been awarded three advanced grants from the European Research Council (ERC) for projects le...
Active weather and organic chemistry on Titan: new observations from the James Webb space telescope
Active weather and organic chemistry on Titan: new observations from the James Webb space telescope
The James Webb space telescope (JWST), in collaboration with the ground-based Keck II telescope, has for the first time observed cloud convection in t...