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'Pinning' Helps the Mole Move

This GIF shows NASA InSight's heat probe, or "mole," digging about a centimeter (half an inch) below the surface last week.

October 17, 2019

This GIF shows NASA InSight's heat probe, or "mole," digging about a centimeter (half an inch) below the surface last week. Using a technique called "pinning," InSight recently pressed against the mole using a scoop on its robotic arm to help the self-hammering heat probe dig so that it can "take the temperature" of Mars.

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NASA/JPL-Caltech

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