The self-hammering probe on NASAs Mars lander cant seem to actually dig into the ground

NASA’s latest Mars lander is having problems with one of its main instruments — a self-hammering probe that just can’t seem to hammer itself into the interplanetary dirt. Over the weekend, the probe was attempting to dig itself into the Martian soil when it popped out of the ground unexpectedly. Now, NASA engineers are trying to troubleshoot to see if they can get this instrument to burrow underneath Mars’ surface as intended.

The probe belongs to NASA’s InSight lander, a robot the size of a small car that landed on Mars in November of 2018. InSight’s goal is to figure out what Mars’ insides are made of, and the lander has two primary tools that it uses to “peer inside” the planet. Its main instrument is a seismometer, tuned to listen...

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