[JonathanTurley] It appears that NASA follows the same principle of many homeowners that the last resort for any stuck machine is to give it a good kick. In the case of the NASA InSight Mars lander, the solution was to order the lander to literally hit itself with its own shovel. It worked.
The problem was the digging probe used to go below the surface. It turns out that Mars soil is clumpier than anticipated. So, as reported in Popular Science, the lander was told to hit itself.
| In the mainframe era the first thing an IBM repairman would do is hit various parts of the machine with a rubber mallet. Why? Because card contacts and wire plugs can get insulating corrosion and a good whack sometimes takes care of it. |