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This makes me more sad than it probably should.

RIP you great little lander!

Might be, but its out lasted any reasonable prediction and i have only this to say ... good lander. Whos a good good little probe thats right you are

Served it's duty well beyond expectations, now will stand a monument to mankind's first babysteps into the solar system, for a long long time. Maybe a tourist stop one day..

For sure, although the remains will probably deteriorate by then

Maybe one day in the future NASA will develop technology to clean the dust off of those solar panels.

Serious question

Why dont they bring some sort of dust remover system like a small brush or something if the issue is panels getting covered with dust?

I was wondering the same thing - but thinking something along the lines of an air blower.

More expensive. More things to fail. Would also cause damage by scratching up the panels. That would significantly lower the amount of light it gets far sooner than dust collection. And people forget... Our landers/rovers and probes are friggin huge. Would need the equivalent of a push broom alongside all the mechanical stuff needed for that purpose alone.

It's not just dry thin dust. After 4 years, it becomes grimy and baked in. Picture a windshield in a snowy area. How the grime gets too thick for dry wiping and you have to use wiper fluid.

Yes exactly! My only thought about the blower is that it would only work on planets where the atmosphere is dense enough.

If they brushed it wouldn’t grime up though

Or how about a clear film covering that has layers or a roller of film that can be removed / replaced to take off the grime? Something like in this link but automated.

I think if you could double (or significantly extend) the life of the rover, a solution would be cost beneficial.

Well if the top minds in a reddit comment thread are on it....

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The Insight project has requirements: baseline and threshold science. If those requirements are met the project has to justify an extended mission operations plan. Sometimes the extra data doesn’t add to the science. Those who claim “cleaning the solar arrays” is a missed opportunity are mistaken. The data has been collected and the teams of operations engineers are needed elsewhere.

In this case the data gathered so far in regards to the geology of Mars definitely justifies an extended mission and a budget to support it.

Another example would be the Voyager 1 and 2 probes that were launched in the late 1970s. It has provided us some great data about heliosphere and its boundary layer as well as the conditions of interstellar space.