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posted by janrinok on Tuesday October 29 2019, @10:28PM   Printer-friendly
from the #SaveTheMole dept.

Updated information on the Mars Insight Lander's Mole Mission.

As previously reported, the burrowing instrument on the Mars Insight Lander dubbed the 'mole' ran into trouble back in February.

Various efforts since, including most recently applying pressure to the instrument with the lander's arm scoop, were undertaken to help the little instrument out, and the most recent effort seemed to be succeeding. The lander managed another 3cm of progress! indicating that it had not encountered an impenetrable rock layer after all.

Sadly for the little spade that should, over the weekend the NASA InSight team tweeted the following discouraging news:

"Mars continues to surprise us. While digging this weekend the mole backed about halfway out of the ground. Preliminary assessment points to unexpected soil properties as the main reason. Team looking at next steps.

The stick like probe is supposed to dig its way down to a depth of about 5 meters and take temperature readings.

An image of the issue is here.


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  • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday October 29 2019, @11:48PM (3 children)

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday October 29 2019, @11:48PM (#913502) Journal

    As drivers, we men are stubborn. We hate to stop, turn around, and go back to correct a mistake. If women were running the mission, they'd just drop this boring project, move on, and explore all the rest of the capabilities of the mobile explorer. At this point, I'm thinking that the women would be right. Maybe, though, the borer will be able to tell us how to build the next borer.

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  • (Score: 2) by coolgopher on Wednesday October 30 2019, @01:16AM (1 child)

    by coolgopher (1157) on Wednesday October 30 2019, @01:16AM (#913521)

    Well, there's also the saying that "experience is what you get when you don't get what you want". Seems to me like they're learning a lot about how not do drill/dig on Mars.

  • (Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 30 2019, @02:15AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 30 2019, @02:15AM (#913539)

    ugh