NASA's push to save the Mars InSight lander's heat probe

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I don't understand why the mole needs to have friction with the sides of the hole in order to work. It works like a hammer. Saying it needs friction with the sides of the hole is like saying a nail needs to have friction with the wood for it to be driven in. As if you can't hammer a nail into sand or water.
 
If you are standing on the nail then the net momentum is zero. They say the that probe appears to be rebounding up after each blow.

I think I’ve seen an article where they’ve recreated the problem in their earthly test sandbox. They didn’t anticipate that particular type of soil.
 
I think another description is that they were counting on an inelastic collision, but without soil friction, it’s acting elastically. So it just bounces against itself.
 

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