Mars InSight to stretch its arm and look around as mole-mashing ops are paused

Engineers have hit pause on attempts make the Mars InSight lander's self-hammering mole dig into the red planet as boffins admit "the task is not likely to become easier." The "mole", a probe that is part of an instrument on the lander called the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3), is supposed to dig down at least …

[RM Myers]

So NASA engineers and computer security people have similar jobs

They both spend their days playing whack-a-mole.

Okay, okay, I'm leaving. No need to push! Jeez, tough crowd.

[Chris G]

The Mole doesn't appear to have any directional stability, just banging about in loose soil it is losing a lot of it's penetrative energy.

The moles I have seen used for cabling usually initiate from a guide into firm earth horizontally, this is, after the initial deployment from the support structure just flopping around and hasn't been truly vertical from the start.

I wonder if they could reload it into the support structure and start on a new piece of ground? Probably not I guess.

[Anonymous Coward]

You guess correctly. If they could have, they would have.

[redpawn]

Oops!

It hit the concrete floor of the stage set, not the area with the pre-planned depression.

Sorry, it used to be a joke.

[ovation1357]

I’m zorry. Ze Mole is grounded. He can’t come out and play...

He zaid very naughty things about God.

[Winkypop]

If only

If only a couple of hapless astronauts were trapped down the hole.

We could send Virgil and Gordon with The Mole.