Do you sometimes tap your remote with your palm to make it work? It seems that NASA has taken a similar solution to fix their Mars lander. The InSight lander’s digging probe got stuck on Mars’ soil. After a few attempts to get the digging probe out, NASA had to let the machine hit itself with a shovel, as Futurism details:
NASA expected its probe, dubbed “the mole,” to dig its way through sand-like terrain. But because the Martian soil clumped together, the whole apparatus got stuck in place.
Programming InSight’s robotic arm to land down on the mole was a risky, last-resort maneuver, PopSci reports, because it risked damaging fragile power and communication lines that attached nearby. Thankfully, engineers spent a few months practicing in simulations before they made a real attempt.
image via Popular Science