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.
Good to know that all of us are equipped to repair an $850 million machine 301 million miles away.