The most recent disappointment on the Red Planet is the saga of the mole, also known as the heat probe of NASA’s InSight lander. NASA has officially given up on this part of the ongoing mission a month ago, after more than a year of trying to get it to work. The robot digger had to dig deep underground and collect data about the inner life of Mars. But the problems started in early 2019, when the probe didn’t appear to get more than an inch underground. Engineers on Earth tried a few strategies to get it moving, including securing it with the lander’s robotic arm. Unfortunately, the ground just wouldn’t cooperate. Where the team expected to find loose regolith, they stumbled upon ‘duricrust’, a thick, cement-like material instead. “We’ve given everything we have, but Mars and our heroic birthmark remain incompatible,” said The project’s lead investigator, Tilman Spohn, in January 2021. “Fortunately, we’ve learned a lot that future missions that try to dig underground will benefit.”
All these painful memories sweeten the successes, and we look forward to all the new science coming from the Perseverance rover.