After spending four years on Martian soil, and logging more than 1,000 seismic events, NASA’s InSight Mars lander detected its largest marsquake to date on May 4th, 2022. Though an energy-equivalent earthquake would only hit 4.7 on our Richter scale, this planet-shaker was as strong as every past marsquake measured by InSight combined – more than five times stronger than the previous record-setter! Both high- and low-frequency waves circled the planet multiple times, lasting nearly ten hours.
Researchers believe that marsquakes are caused by magma moving deep under the surface, indicating that the red planet may still be volcanically active. However, InSight will no longer be studying Mars’ possible volcanic nature. After outliving its primary mission by two years, InSight said goodbye last week due to low power levels, officially losing contact on December 18th. Red Canyon is proud to have contributed to many aspects of InSight’s groundbreaking mission, including flight software, entry, descent, and landing, uplink/downlink, telemetry, and trajectory course maneuver!
Want to dig in and learn more about InSight’s seismic life? Check out the links below!
NASA’s InSight lander just recorded its biggest quake on Mars ever
NASA’s InSight Records Monster Quake on Mars
NASA’s InSight Records the Largest Quake on Mars to Date
Marsquakes hint that the planet might be volcanically active after all
