General Question

_Whitetigress's avatar

How deep a hole has ever been drilled by humans on Mars?

Asked by _Whitetigress (4378points) September 7th, 2012

I might have worded my question incorrectly, however if it is satisfactory, might you be able to provide a link to that source as well?

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6 Answers

Sunny2's avatar

Since we just got there, I think the answer would be: no holes at all yet. . . . unless I’ve missed the latest news.

wonderingwhy's avatar

I don’t believe we have drilled to any depth. Phoenix scraped the surface (1) and Curiosity will vaporize via laser (2). InSight however is designed to drill (about 16 feet as currently envisioned) (3, 4). We’ve also taken a look under the surface from orbit (SHARAD, MARSIS).

Afos22's avatar

Humans haven’t been there yet to drill. Hehe :]. But, as @wonderingwhy says, Phoenix lander scraped the surface. Phoenix dug a 7 inch deep trench. Which is the deepest humans have been responsible for digging/drilling on Mars, I think.

dabbler's avatar

Didn’t some probe fire a projectile into the northern ice cap from orbit ?
That’s not exactly drilling, but would make a hole probably deeper than 7 inches.

Afos22's avatar

@dabbler Are you thinking LCROSS? If so, that was the moon.

dabbler's avatar

@Afos22 You are correct, that’s the one. I forgot at what celestial body we lobbed that…

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