... Every Tool is a Hammer

In robotics, there's a saying: 1) Always use the right tool for the job. 2) The right tool is always a hammer. 3) Every tool is a hammer.

NASA has a robot which is working but doesn't move on Mars. It's called Insight and it is recording data about the Martian soil and interior of the planet. Earlier it detected earthquakes on Mars, or more accurately, marsquakes. This week, however Insight had a problem. One tool the machine has is a mini jackhammer. While deploying this tool, it got stuck in clumpy Martian soil. After many attempts to get it out, engineers at JPL and NASA had to come up with an alternative solution. What was that solution? Have the rover whack itself with a shovel to dislodge the jackhammer tool from the soil. NASA expected its jackhammer, 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.

After a few failed attempts to get it out, NASA had to get a bit creative. Ultimately, it freed the probe up by giving it a solid thwack with InSight's shovel. Programming InSight's robotic arm to land down on the mole was a risky, last-resort maneuver, 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. With tentative results that the mole is working again, NASA hopes to again task it with burrowing beneath the surface of Mars. Once it's down there, it will hopefully be able to complete its research mission: analyzing temperature fluctuations inside the Red Planet in an attempt to understand how similar Mars' core is to that of Earth.

Credits:
https://www.sciencealert.com/nasa-makes-mars-lander-hit-itself-with-a-shovel-to-get-unstuck