NASA is trying to hack a solution with terrestrial clones

Last month, NASA's Mars InSight lander began digging into the red planet. His HP³ (Together heat flux and physical properties) was designed to dig and measure Mars from the basement, uncovering new geological evidence of how heat flows through the Martian soil. The part of this instrument that actually burrows into the ground is known as the mole. It was intended to penetrate up to 16 feet deep. But it stopped only hours after the excavations began. The mole has only been about a foot deep.

Since then, mission scientists have been working hard to find a way to revive it. Their current best estimate, according to Tilman Spohn, HP³ The main investigator of the instrument is that the mole has struck a rock or a layer of gravel. But he admits that it's partly a speculation. It is also possible that the exercise is hooked in one way or another on its own support structure. The team must study all possibilities before acting.

Test at home and on Mars

To find out, the NASA team turned to a suite of diagnostic tools, such as the InSight camera and other sensors. But they are also trying to recreate the problem of engineering models here on Earth. InSight has a twin, currently located in Berlin, and many more copies of its various instruments, including the mole. Since the failure, the engineers are training with these clone carriages to try to recreate the problem they encounter on Mars, then to find a way to have the moles tied to the earth dig again. Only then will they try these corrections on the real InSight.

Spohn points out that the whole process is slow and that it may take another month before the team is ready to attempt problem-solving attempts on Mars. Even once the solution is in focus, it may be necessary to write new software, test it on models on Earth, and then send it to the real InSight before any action.

So, for now, the teams at the German Aerospace Center, which provided the HP³ and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which runs the largest InSight mission, are working together to find the cause and possible solutions to InSight's digging problem.

Possible conclusions

There are scenarios that could stop the mission where it is. "If it's a 1-meter (3-foot) block of rock in the place," says Spohn, "there's no way to handle this situation. The hope is that what we hammer is a small rock, let's say twice as small as the length of the mole. We could push that aside and continue to pound. Spohn calls this the "brute force" approach.

Scientists plan, among other things, to help the mole to rely on the mole: you have to press the mole or its support structure, probably with the arm of InSight, to give it more strength and limit everything decline. At the moment, part of the problem may be that the mole bounces off the rock instead of crossing it, so adding more pressure could help dig it. But that's not why the arm was designed. That's why it would be so important to test the models on Earth before trying them with the $ 800 million Mars ship.

If they continue to pound and bend or break part of the lander, there is no solution to the red planet. "If you make a mistake, let's go," says Spohn. But he also points out that if the mole starts digging freely again, it could reach its target depth in about four hours and there was still a lot of energy left to do it. InSight itself runs on solar energy and was designed for two years of service on Earth. InSight only happened on Mars in November, so there is a lot of time left.

If the worst case occurs and the mole can not continue, Spohn admits, "We would lose a tremendous amount of scientific data." The mole must go down at least 10 feet in order to be able to measure the heat flow from within. Mars: "But there's still more to do," he says, as InSight's other instruments are working as expected and they'll still get information at the foot of the Mars dust that InSight was able to dig. "It would always be things that had not been done before," says Spohn. "Not as bold as originally planned, but still a good science."