The latest disappointment on the Red Planet is the mole saga, aka the heat probe of NASA’s InSight lander. NASA has officially abandoned this part of the ongoing mission a month ago, after more than a year of attempts to put into operation. The robotic digger had to dig deep underground and gather data about the inner course of Mars. But the problems began in early 2019, when the probe could not appear to reach more than an inch below the ground. Earth engineers have tried several strategies to get it moving, including attaching it to the robot arm of the lander. Unfortunately, the ground would not cooperate. If the team expected to find free regolith, instead they faced “duricrust”, a thick, cement-like material. “We gave him everything we have, but Mars and our heroic mole remain incompatible” SAPS the project’s chief investigator, Tilman Spohn, in January 2021. “Fortunately, we have learned many things that will benefit future missions trying to dig underground.”
All these painful memories make the successes even sweeter and we look forward to all the new science that will come from the rover of Perseverance.