When NASA used desi jugaad to fix Mars lander

NASA seems to have learnt a few jugaad tricks from Indians. At an Indian household, simple tricks like hitting the remote or television set to make it work are quite common. But can you believe that an international space agency like NASA would use this desi jugaad to fix the Mars lander? Well, they actually used it and pulled it off.

NASA recently fixed one of its probes by hitting it with a shovel after they faced an issue with the Mars lander when a heat probe (mole) couldn’t dig a hole on the surface, as planned last year.

"A bit of good news from #Mars: our new approach of using the robotic arm to push the mole appears to be working!" said NASA in a tweet.

In a statement, NASA clarified that the probe did not have the required friction to burrow into the soil. Hammering the probe, however, worked.

"The mole's actual movement took place over just a couple minutes of hammering (a total of 25 hammer strokes, plus the push from my arm)," NASA said in another tweet.