InSight update, Sols 43-83, by Emily Lakdawalla, The Planetary Society

Now that InSight has finished placing both science instruments and the wind cover, the arm’s required work is done and the science team can set about commissioning their instruments. For the heat probe instrument, commissioning involves driving its instrumented “mole” as many as 5 meters into the ground beneath the landing site, a process that will take a minimum of 40 days. How does the heat probe’s mole work? Why does it take so long to place it? And what happens if the InSight mole hits a rock? I have answers to these questions for you, with some help from deputy principal investigator Sue Smrekar. And then I’ll tell you about future plans for the arm… [More at link]