The 'mole' on Mars is finally underground after a push from NASA's InSight lander

[Judi Lynn]

By Meghan Bartels 10 hours ago

But can it still dig?



An image taken on June 3, 2020, shows the arm of the InSight lander gently pushing the heat probe into
Mars. (Image: © NASA/JPL-Caltech)

There's a light at the end of the tunnel for the first mole to burrow into the surface of Mars, scientists hope.

Not a furry mole, of course; the term is the nickname for the instrument formally known as the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package on board NASA's InSight lander mission. The lander, which touched down on Mars in November 2018, is designed to give scientists a look inside the Red Planet and gather data to help them understand its geology and internal structure. The mole is one of the lander's three key tools to accomplish that — but for more than a year, mission personnel have struggled to deploy it.

But after serious challenges, the mole has finally reached a new milestone. "After several assists from my robotic arm, the mole appears to be underground," the official Twitter account for the mission wrote yesterday (June 3). "It's been a real challenge troubleshooting from millions of miles away. We still need to see if the mole can dig on its own."

The mole consists of a drillbit-like assembly full of heat sensors that are attached to the main body of the lander by a taillike tether. The instrument is designed to hammer itself up to 16 feet (5 meters) into the Martian surface near InSight's home in a region called Elysium Planitia. The idea is that as it burrows down, the mole's temperature sensors will study the rock it digs through and evaluate how energy moves out from the planet's core.

More:
https://www.space.com/insight-mars-lander-pushes-mole-into-red-planet.html