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posted by martyb on Thursday March 19 2020, @04:56AM   Printer-friendly
from the smack-a-mole dept.

For those tracking the twisting tale of the NASA Mars InSight Lander's plucky heat probe nicknamed 'the mole' - there is some good news! NASA reports:

A bit of good news from #Mars: our new approach of using the robotic arm to push the mole appears to be working! The teams @NASAJPL/@DLR_en are excited to see the images and plan to continue this approach over the next few weeks. 💪 #SaveTheMole

FAQ: https://t.co/wnhp7c1gPT pic.twitter.com/5wYyn7IwVo
— NASA InSight (@NASAInSight) March 13, 2020

The mole is a 16-inch-long (40-centimeter) spike equipped with an internal hammering mechanism that relies on friction from the soil to help it dig down. The likely reason for its trouble digging is that the fine dry regolith, which is supposed to provide friction to keep the mole from bouncing up on each strike has not been doing so, causing the mole to work its way up and almost out of its hole.

By pushing down on the rod with a shovel-like sampling instrument, NASA is finally making progress getting the mole to dig again.

Direct link to the mission blog: https://www.dlr.de/blogs/en/all-blog-posts/The-InSight-mission-logbook.aspx.

Previously:
Mashing May Mitigate Mars Mole Meandering
More Mars Mole Mission Misfortune
Mars Mole Mission Rues Resistanceless Regolith
NASA to Jack up Insight Lander to Assess Non-Penetrating Probe
InSight Impinges Insufficiently in Site


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  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 19 2020, @06:47AM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 19 2020, @06:47AM (#973084)

    I have never heard of anybody using this method to bore a hole. There could be a reason!

    If NASA wanted a reciprocating motion, they could have shipped a pretty normal pile driver. If NASA wanted a drilling motion, they could have shipped a pretty normal drill, possibly with a gas generator (hydrazine and catalyst) to blow the dirt out.

    Since the distance is only 16 feet 8 inches, they could probably ship it intact. Another option is the one used on oil rigs, with sections of pipe automatically welded together as they go into the hole. For such a small high-tech job, screw-together joints would also make sense.

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  • (Score: 2, Funny) by Runaway1956 on Thursday March 19 2020, @07:29AM

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Thursday March 19 2020, @07:29AM (#973098) Journal

    It was one of those diversity things. As usual, anything given to a committee is going to come back mutilated. The more diverse the committee, the more mutilated you can exepct. Old Musky can probably deliver a complete well drilling pump, intact, and ready to run - just supply electricity. He might even deliver the electricity, for a couple extra bucks. It will be the user's responsibility to deploy the solar cells.

  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Thexalon on Thursday March 19 2020, @01:46PM (1 child)

    by Thexalon (636) on Thursday March 19 2020, @01:46PM (#973148)

    I have never heard of anybody using this method to bore a hole. There could be a reason!

    If I had to hazard a guess, it's a problem with mass: Moving heavy objects around on Earth is relatively easy. Moving heavy objects through interplanetary space, not so easy. Even a BFR can't move that much stuff, just because of the difficulty of getting it out of Earth's gravity.

    --
    The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 19 2020, @10:36PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 19 2020, @10:36PM (#973322)

      They have the whole lander as mass, but aren't using it. They also put mass in the stupid mole thing, as an internal wiggler.