NASA Tries Different Tack to Get Struggling Martian ‘Mole’ to Dig

NASA InSight recently moved its robotic arm closer to its digging device in preparation to push on its top (via NASA/JPL/Caltech)

More than a year after NASA’s InSight lander arrived on Mars, the space agency is still struggling to drill into the red soil.

Following a strong start in December 2018, InSight hit its first major roadblock early last year when the team missed its opportunity to activate a self-hammering spike known as “the mole.”

The device, which looks like an automobile jack with a vertical metal tube, features heat sensors to measure the soil’s thermal conductivity (or how easily heat moves through the Martian subsurface).

Eventually, the tool is expected to burrow as far as 16 feet below ground—deeper than any previous mission to the Red Planet.

But NASA’s mission has so far been held up multiple times—once because of obstructive rocks, and later due to a lack of friction. No sooner did the struggling mole get back to digging in November than it got stuck again.

My robotic mole has had a hard time getting underground, so I’m going to try something we never thought we’d do: giving it a push with my robotic arm while it hammers. This will take several weeks, as the @NASAJPL/@DLR_en team works to #SaveTheMole.

More: https://t.co/ees9hdF9vo pic.twitter.com/w42KXBe18o

— NASA InSight (@NASAInSight) February 21, 2020

On Friday, NASA revealed its latest idea for how to force the mini pile driver further underfoot.

From hundreds of million miles away, Earthbound engineers will direct the InSight’s robotic arm to “push” the top of the drill—in hopes of keeping it from backing out of its hole (as it did twice in recent months after nearly burying itself).

“The InSight team hopes that pushing on this location will help the mole bury itself and enable the heat probe to take Mars’ temperature,” the agency explained.

The process, which could fail miserably, is expected to take several weeks; it has previously been avoided in an effort to curb potential damage to the tether.

A model of the InSight lander at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory allows scientists to test how the far-flung spacecraft can use its own limb to press on the digging device.

Scientists are also considering using the attached scoop to move more soil into the hole around the mole, adding the necessary pressure and friction for it to dig further.

More on Geek.com:

• MRO’s HiRISE Camera Spots NASA’s InSight and Curiosity on Mars
• Listen: NASA’s InSight ‘Hears’ More Marsquakes
• NASA’s InSight Lander Snaps Dreamy Sunrise, Sunset on Mars

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