NASA Is Trying To Save A Stuck Self-Digging Spike On Mars

NASA engineers are trying to execute a complex resuce mission on the remote Martian soil. The operation has been necessitated by an instrument on its Mars InSight Lander, which touched down on the Red Planet in November 2018.

The instrument, designed to measure heat flow deep in the Martian soil, is more like a self-hammering spike that will have to burrow about 16 feet deep before it can do its work.

But it suffered a glitch after only digging a foot deep. Since then, NASA experts are trying to come up with ways to get the mole to work again. Tilman Spohn, the principal investigator, believes the digger would have hit a rock or a gravel layer. Spohn said it's also possible that the instrument snagged on its own support structure. He explained that part of the problem could be that the mole is bouncing off the rock instead of driving through.

Last week the team used InSight's robotic arm to move the mole's surrounding support structure. This was accomplished in a slow three-step process, ensuring the mole wasn't pulled out of the surface. The scientists would now be able to get a better view of the mole to diagnose the problem correctly.

According to Discover Magazine, the NASA team has turned to a suite of diagnostic tools, like InSight’s camera and other sensors. They are also trying to recreate the problem with engineering models on Earth to come up with a possible solution. Discover Magazine revealed that the Mars InSight has a twin in Berlin, and many copies of its various instruments, including the mole. “Engineers have been practicing with these clone landers ever since the failure, trying to recreate the problem they are seeing on Mars, and then devise a way to get the earthbound moles digging again,” it said.

However, Spohn pointed out that the process is slow. He said it may take another month or so before the team is ready to try any fix-it attempts on Mars. “Even once they devise a solution, it may require writing new software, testing it on the models on Earth, and then sending it to the real InSight,” Spohn explained.

For the time being, the German Aerospace Centre and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory are working together to find the cause and solutions to the Lander’s digging problem. Even if the glitch is fixed, Spohn says there are possible scenairos that might halt the InSight altogether. “If there is a three foot block of rock at the spot, there is no way we can handle the situation. The hope is that what we are hammering against is a small rock, about half the size of the mole’s length,” he said and added that it could be pushed aside by continued hammering. Spohn called this the brute force approach. Experts are also looking at the option to press down on the mole or the support structure to give it more force and limit any recoil. But the teams are testing it with models on Earth because pushing down is not what the arm was designed for.

NASA is hoping for a breakthrough soon.