Reply to post: Re: Huge failure - No actually it wasnt

NASA pulls the plug on InSight's mole after Martian surface bests boffins

lglethal Silver badge
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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

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