This may be the last chance operation for the Insight robot. While its drilling instrument seems ineffective, NASA has devised a strategy to allow, despite everything, the drilling of the ground of Mars, reports Numerama .
The American space agency will use Insight's robotic arm for this. The latter will press on the "mole", the drilling instrument, to give it more strength and allow it to correctly drill the soil of the red planet. NASA leaves itself until early March to properly prepare for this risky maneuver.
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.
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A maneuver tested on Earth
Scientists have been waiting more than a year for temperature measurements on Martian soil. The mechanical mole of the thermal probe had to sink down to 5 m deep to make these precious readings. But the mole faces harder ground than elsewhere, say the researchers. So that she finds herself half sunk in the Martian sand and tilted.
#InSight: NASA plays its all-out game and attempts a risky maneuver to drive the “#taupe” https://t.co/3doq6noYlX
- Futura - Explore the world (@futurasciences) February 24, 2020All attempts to allow drilling have so far failed. Twice, when scientists thought they had succeeded, the mole came back up. NASA hopes this final attempt will succeed. The procedure has been successfully reproduced on Earth, but it is not without risk. By hitting the back of the mole, it could lose elements essential to its functioning.
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- Nasa
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- March
- Drilling