InSight lander

Context: NASA has declared the Mars digger dead after failing to burrow deep into the red planet to take its temperature.

• Mars digger called mole, a 16-inch-long (40-centimetre) device that is part of NASA’s InSight lander couldn’t gain enough friction in the red dirt.
• It was supposed to bury 16 feet (5 metres) into Mars, but only drilled down a couple of feet (about a half metre).
• The mole’s design was based on Martian soil examined by previous spacecraft.
• InSight landed on Mars in November 2018. The Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations , Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight)mission is a robotic lander designed to study the deep interior of the planet Mars.
• It will be joined by NASA’s newest rover, Perseverance, which will attempt a touchdown on Feb. 18.
• The Curiosity rover has been roaming Mars since 2012. Mars 2020 is a Mars rover mission by NASA's Mars Exploration Program that includes the Perseverance rover and the Ingenuity helicopter drone.
• Curiosity is a car-sized Mars rover designed to explore the Gale crater on Mars as part of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission.

https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/science/rip-mars-digger-bites-the-dust-after-2-years-on-red-planet/article33577000.ece?homepage=true