The InSight space probe landed on Mars on November 26 at 10:50 pm Moscow time. InSight mission calculated
HP3 was suspended on March 7th. Before that, the device had drilled a hole of 50 cm in Martian soil for four hours, after which the drill stumbled upon an obstacle. In total, the device had to drill a 5 m deep well in the ground.
An analysis has shown that the barrier is not a boulder, but a layer of duristrust. Engineers believe that the drill will be able to overcome it, however, due to the shedding of the well, the return of the tool will inevitably fall.
Now scientists are going to raise a littleInSight with IDA (Instrument Deployment Arm) robotic arm, thereby compensating for recoil on impact. There is probably a lack of adhesion between the drill and the surrounding soil due to the fact that the well is filled with detrital material.
According to the plans, the process of lifting InSight will take place in several stages from the end of June 2019.
Earlier, InSight recorded for the first time the cooling of the surface of Mars, which was the result of the eclipse of the Sun by Phobos.