Mars' sunrise captured in NASA InSight lander's stunning time-lapse; 'I’ll never tire...'

Hopefully, it’s not too far when humans will finally make it to Mars and establish a settlement that would ensure the longevity of our species. Several decades into the future, we might be waking up to a Martian sunrise and feeling the artificially manufactured air. While we slowly make progress toward that day, NASA’s InSight lander has transmitted a photograph giving a glimpse of what a typical morning would look like on the red planet. 

The visual shared above is a compilation of sunrise photos taken by the Insight lander, which were taken at different points in time. NASA combined these images to create a short timelapse of the common yet stunning phenomenon.

"I’ll never tire of sunrise on Mars. Each morning, that distant dot climbs higher in the sky, giving me energy for another round of listening to the rumbles beneath my feet", InSight's mission team wrote on Twitter. 

The InSight Lander

Short for "Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport", the InSight lander touched down on the red planet's Elysium Planitia region in November 2018. It's job is to study marsquakes and the interior of Mars. Currently, the lander is in its extended phase of the exploration mission as it has survived about 687 Earth day (one full Martian year) of studying our neighbouring planet. 

In a recent post, InSight mission team informed that the lander is currently engulfed in dust after a recent dust storm shrouded Mars. In a tweet, the lander revealed that its solar panels are covered in dust but it is producing as much power as it used to.

"Now that the dust has settled from the recent storm, I find I’m producing almost as much power as I was before. There’s still a lot of dust on my panels, but for now I’ll keep listening to Mars and sharing what I find with you all", the lander's Twitter post read.

Just a couple weeks ago, engineers rescued InSight from safe mode as a massive storm was approaching towards the lander. NASA explained that the solar panels and ultimately the power supply can be affected by dust storms as the particles accumulate on the solar panels and reduce sunlight filtering through the atmosphere.

(Image: @NASAInSight/Twitter)