Published 18:58 IST, March 20th 2020
NASA fixes Mars InSight lander by making it hit itself with shovel
NASA does jugaad on Mars to help lander dig a hole by commanding one of its robotic arms to push the 'mole' with a shovel. NASA announced the news on Twitter.
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Indians are known for fixing problems with jugaad, be it making the TV remote work by tapping on its back or shutting down the entire system to fix a small bug. However, this time it's the National Aeronautics Space Agency (NASA) who has taken the idea of jugaad seriously to fix a problem on one of its probes on the Red Planet, Mars.
NASA's Jugaad
NASA took to its official Twitter handle to share the news about the recent fix. NASA announced that it used a shovel to push the mole which had stopped working. NASA explained the problem in a statement issued by the space agency on February 21. The statement read, "The InSight team is now trying a new technique to help the mole. They’re trying to use the scoop on the end of its robotic arm to press on the top of the mole, also called its back cap."
"After nearly a year of trying to dig into the Martian surface, the heat probe belonging to NASA's InSight lander is about to get a push. The mission team plans to command the scoop on InSight's robotic arm to press down on the "mole," the mini pile driver designed to hammer itself as much as 16 feet (5 meters) down. They hope that pushing down on the mole's top, also called the back cap, will keep it from backing out of its hole on Mars, as it did twice in recent months after nearly burying itself," NASA informed in the statement.
A bit of good news from #Mars: our new approach of using the robotic arm to push the mole appears to be working! The teams @NASAJPL/@DLR_en are excited to see the images and plan to continue this approach over the next few weeks. 💪 #SaveTheMole
— NASA InSight (@NASAInSight) March 13, 2020
FAQ: https://t.co/wnhp7c1gPT pic.twitter.com/5wYyn7IwVo
19:08 IST, March 20th 2020