Digging On Mars Has Started

[Robert Zwilling]

The digging on Mars has started. The first time is simply trying to hammer a temperature sensor into the ground to a depth around 15 feet. Described as a one shot deal it may turn out to be an unplanned mapping of the distribution of loose rocks under the Martian surface. That depends on how many times the probe can be reused. The place to land on was hoped to be rock free dust and granular particles which the probe could pound its way through to a depth of 4 or 5 meters. The probe hit a rock at 6 inches in. If there are a lot of rocks in a rock free area it might mean that Martian plains are more solid than originally thought. I would assume they can another try another spot as the probe is 16 inches long so it should be easy to extract it and try again. It can only probe over an area the length of the robotic arm that is deploying it, around 6 feet. It might be restricted to a depth of 16 inches, as once the probe is buried in the Martian soil there might be a problem pulling back out after a certain depth. The soil was expected to be very granular, probably filling in behind the probe immediately. I wonder if they will be able to improvise a shovel, It will be interesting to see what happens next.

 

[Brian G Turner]

The BBC is giving coverage of this - apparently the "mole" hasn't gone deep enough to leave its protective casing:

Nasa InSight probe: Mars 'mole' hits blockage in its burrow

The Insight probe's efforts to drill down below the surface of Mars appear to have hit some stony obstructions.

www.bbc.co.uk