10 votes

The self-hammering probe on NASA’s Mars lander can’t seem to actually dig into the ground

2 comments

  1. [2]
    MimicSquid
    Link
    Turns out that if the soil is too powdery you can't get good traction on it when trying to burrow. It's a pity that the soil here ended up being different enough from those sampled at other...

    Turns out that if the soil is too powdery you can't get good traction on it when trying to burrow. It's a pity that the soil here ended up being different enough from those sampled at other landing sites that it's causing problems, but at least we'll know more for future attempts.

    5 votes
    1. sqew
      Link Parent
      Credit to Scott Manley for saying this on Twitter earlier today (I think it was him at least), but the bright side of all this is that some scientist who works on Martian soil density is probably...

      Credit to Scott Manley for saying this on Twitter earlier today (I think it was him at least), but the bright side of all this is that some scientist who works on Martian soil density is probably crazy excited about what we're learning from this particular turn of events.

      3 votes