NASA InSight Lander Finally Pushes its Burrowing 'Mole' Heat Probe into Mars
martyb writes:
NASA InSight lander finally pushes its burrowing 'mole' heat probe into Mars:
NASA's InSight lander has had a pretty triumphant run on Mars investigating marsquakes and listening to the weird sounds of the red planet. There's been one sticking point, though: Mars hasn't welcomed the lander's heat probe, known as the "mole."
The heat probe is designed to hammer into Mars, burrow down deep and take the planet's internal temperature, but the probe kept popping out of the ground. NASA and the mole team have spent over a year working through possible solutions for the stuck mole, and they may finally be making some progress.
"After several assists from my robotic arm, the mole appears to be underground. It's been a real challenge troubleshooting from millions of miles away," the NASA InSight account tweeted on Wednesday.
InSight is on a mission to learn more about how rocky planets like Mars and Earth form. The heat probe could provide valuable data for scientists, but even if it doesn't work out, InSight's science mission will still be a success.
There's much more information (including an animated gif) on the mole mission's blog.
The question still remains whether the mole can continue its descent now that it's apparently below Mars' surface.
Previously:
(2020-03-19) NASA Succeeds in Banging Mole With a Shovel
(2020-02-23) Mashing May Mitigate Mars Mole Meandering
(2019-10-29) More Mars Mole Mission Misfortune
(2019-07-06) Mars Mole Mission Rues Resistanceless Regolith
(2019-06-06) NASA to Jack up Insight Lander to Assess Non-Penetrating Probe
(2019-03-05) InSight Impinges Insufficiently in Site
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