The agency said it hopes to take InSight out of safe mode next week.

One of NASA's Mars robots is in safe mode to save power while a dust storm blocks its solar panels from charging.

The InSight lander, which is designed to study the interior of Mars, is stable in its safe mode, which the spacecraft initiated on Jan.

For now, this steady power likely means that InSight will not face the same demise as the long-running Opportunity Mars rover, which fell silent in 2018 during a series of global dust storms that ultimately emptied the rover's batteries.

InSight, which landed on the Red Planet in 2018, was already working at reduced power due to normal buildup of dust on its two solar panels!

Indeed, reduced power is one of the greatest threats to the mission and could end the activities of InSight sometime in 2022, the agency said last year.

Predictions are, however, that InSight should have enough power for the time being to survive this particular dust event, although the agency said they are hoping to control the lander more in the coming days to conserve its energy. .

— Mars dust devil.

— Perseverance rover spots its first dust devil on Mars.

"InSight's engineers are hopeful they will be able to command the lander to exit safe mode next week," NASA said.