NASA pulls the plug on InSight's mole after Martian surface bests boffins
- Reference: 1610741173
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/01/15/insight_mole/
- Source link:
Despite repeated attempts since February 2019, the mole has failed to achieve the depth necessary to conduct the desired science. The instrument hammered itself to a depth of approximately 35cm, but it appears the "duricrust" lurking beneath the surface has won the day.
[3]
The cemented soil of duricrust is [4]unlike anything encountered before on Mars in previous missions, and not something the mole was designed for.
Rather than burrow into Mars, the instrument simply bounced around in its pit and attempts to bury and push it down with the assistance of InSight's robot arm have finally come to naught.
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The team had one final go last week, having got the top of the mole two or three centimetres under the surface, but after using the scoop on the end of InSight's arm to scrape soil and tamp it down on top in an effort to improve friction an end was called. A further 500 hammer strokes from the mole had seen no further progress.
"We've given it everything we've got, but Mars and our heroic mole remain incompatible," said HP 3 's principal investigator, Tilman Spohn of the German Aerospace Center (DLR). He added that the lessons learned would benefit future missions.
"The mole is a device with no heritage. What we attempted to do – to dig so deep with a device so small – is unprecedented," said Troy Hudson, a scientist and engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Hudson had led efforts to get the mole deeper into the Martian crust.
The InSight lander has two main science goals: to understand the formation and evolution of Mars and to determine the level of tectonic activity on the planet.
Part of NASA's Discovery programme, the lander includes a seismometer, a radio science experiment, and a Heat Flow Probe. Known as the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package, HP 3 for short, this "mole" was to burrow almost three metres beneath the Martian surface in order to measure the heat coming from the interior of the planet.
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Still, InSight's other instruments continue to work as expected and, as seems to often be the case, the lander has exceeded longevity expectations. It has company on the Red Planet in the form of the long-lived [7]Curiosity Rover , which recently celebrated its [8]3,000th day on Mars . NASA's Perseverance rover is due to reach the Martian surface on 18 February. ®
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[1] https://www.theregister.com/2021/01/13/nasa_juno_insight/
[2] https://mars.nasa.gov/news/8836/nasa-insights-mole-ends-its-journey-on-mars/
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_science/front&sz=300x250&tile=2&c=2YAIegrS-z4wCnrzGHgT9-gAAAEo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2020/07/09/mars_insight_mole/
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_science/front&sz=300x250%7C300x252%7C300x600&tile=3&c=33YAIegrS-z4wCnrzGHgT9-gAAAEo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_science/front&sz=300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251&tile=4&c=44YAIegrS-z4wCnrzGHgT9-gAAAEo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2020/07/09/road_trip_curiosity/
[8] https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/nasa-s-curiosity-rover-reaches-its-3000th-day-on-mars
[9] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Huge failure
Insight is a huge failure since drilling down and measuring seismic activity was the whole point of this mission.
I'd say back to the drawing board and the next time they should use a proper drill to dig down into the soil. Also the failure to plan around such an eventuality was a failure in itself. They should've had the option to reverse the mole and try again somewhere else.
Re: Huge failure - No actually it wasnt
Actually The HP³ Mole was only one of the secondary instruments on the InSight mission, not the Primary. The primary instrument was the Seismometers which have been working perfectly. There are a number of other instruments including the weather package which has been giving hourly weather reports for Mars since it's arrival. All the other instruments were complete successes.
The Mole was designed to hammer 3-5m into the soil (a slight correction is needed in the article about that). You cant drill 3m. Not without serious weight and space problems. The Mole, plus all its packaging (flight housing, cables, electronics, etc.) came in at under 3kg. If you want retractable you need to add a lot of weight, and if you add a lot of weight, you add a lot of cost or you remove other instruments and lose science.
We designed the Mole based on the best knowledge available, i.e. the info from all of the previous landers and rovers. None of them had experienced a soil variation like we did. The best analogy I can give you is that someone gives you a satellite image of a house (resolution a few metres per pixel). You now need to drill a hole in a wall in that house. Choose your tool bit, and feeds and speeds now. And no you cant change them once you get there. So you kow a lot of houses have masonry walls, so perhaps you choose a masonry bit. But whose to say this isnt a house made out of steel? Then you're screwed. Or it's an igloo? Maybe it's a glass wall? That's what the HP³ team were working with, satellite images of the landing area. Info from the other rovers and landers. And as much testing with different soils and make ups as we could do here on earth. But sometimes it just doesnt work out.
Sad day for all the InSight team, but still that's Science, sometimes it doesnt work out. And even a negative result brings experience (other instruments have been able to use the Moles hammering to make other scientific measurements, so it's not a complete loss). Beer for all involved!
--- from an ex-HP³ team member
Re: Huge failure - No actually it wasnt
This is part of why I keep coming back to El Reg: to watch hapless, clueless commentards get an authoritative beatdown.
Re: Huge failure - No actually it wasnt
> You cant drill 3m
Don't. Next you'll be telling me that Bruce Willis film wasn't real.
(Thanks for the insight, always great to hear from an insider)
Sorry to here this,
but sometimes you just can't get a bigger hammer, particularly when the nearest "bigger hammer" is 155 million kilometers away. At least they learned something very surprising and interesting about the Martian soil, and otherwise the mission seems successful.
You win some
You lose some. And NASA is well ahead as far as I'm concerned.