NASA’s Mars Lander ‘Mole’ Is Digging Again as Marsquake Mystery Baffles Scientists

December 19, 2019 Jeremy Blog, Space, Technology 0

The troubled “mole” on NASA’s InSight Mars lander is moving again, even as scientists working on the robot’s seismometer ponder new marsquake mysteries.

InSight touched down in November 2018 on a quest to understand the interior of the Red Planet. Two of its crucial tools for that task were a burrowing heat probe nicknamed the mole and a super-sensitive seismometer to study motion within the planet.

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The poles are not the only place where water can be found on the Martian surface. Credit: ESA/DLR/NASA
This map shows underground water ice on Mars. Cool colors are closer to the surface than warm colors; black zones indicate areas where a spacecraft would sink into fine dust; the outlined box represents the ideal region to send astronauts for them to dig up water ice. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU
The area of Mars outlined by the white box, in Arcadia Planitia, is considered a tempting landing site for future human missions thanks to the availability of subsurface water ice. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech

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