InSight Team Tries New Strategy to Assist the Mole

The robotic geologist mole has become stuck while drilling on Mars. A new idea has emerged for its restart.

The robotic mole arrived on the red planet in November as part of NASA's InSight mission and began drilling into the Martian soil at the end of February. During its first operation, which lasted four hours, it made 4,000 hammer strikes and reached a depth of 30 centimeters, but it has not progressed for months.

In the past few months, the InSight team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, has examined and analyzed its operation to understand what is hindering the mole's digging. Team members now believe that the most likely cause is that the soil around InSight has a different structure than the soil seen in other parts of Mars. The mole is designed so that the loose soil around it creates friction that works against rebound, allowing for digging.

American and German space scientists plan to use InSight's robotic arm to try to lift the mole's support structure. This would allow them to examine its position more closely and, during further hammering, directly support the robotic mole with the robotic arm.