With the Mars InSight Lander Stuck, NASA Tries to Hack a Fix With Earthly Clones

Last month, NASA’s Mars InSight lander started digging into the Red Planet. Its HP3(Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package) instrument was designed to burrow and measure Mars from underground, uncovering new geological evidence about how heat flows through the Martian soil. The part of this instrument that actually burrows into the ground is known as the mole. It was meant to penetrate up to 16 feet deep. But it stopped just hours after it starting digging. The mole only made it about a foot deep.