Mars is a harsh world compared to Earth — and even robots struggle to thrive there. One such example is the small heat probe that recently ventured to the Red Planet with
NASA’s InSight lander. The probe, appropriately dubbed the ‘mole,’ was designed to burrow 16 feet (5 meters) into the martian surface, where it would then collect unprecedented data on the planet’s internal temperature. Equipped with that knowledge, scientists had hoped to gain a better understand of what’s driving the Red Planet’s geology and evolution.
After its deployment in February 2019, the mole immediately struggled to gain traction in the martian soil. And the project team has been tirelessly working to
#SaveTheMole ever since. Now, two years later, they’ve finally thrown in the towel.
Try, try again
The mole’s troubles ultimately boiled down to the fact that InSight landed at a site that had unexpected soil properties, which quickly threw a wrench into the original plan. Unlike soil previously seen on Mars, what the mole was trying to dig through had a tendency to clump — a strange characteristic that researchers have spent the past two years trying to figure out.
One of the ways engineers attempted to overcome this unforeseen hurdle was to use InSight’s robotic arm in a way that’s never been tried before. With no other options, the team tried using the arm to push down on probe to help it start digging.