Planetary Society logo
  • “Exploration is in our nature.” - Carl Sagan

Curiosity prepares to drill for the first time

Curiosity prepares to drill for the first time
Curiosity prepares to drill for the first time These photos document Curiosity's preparations for the first drilling on Mars. Upper left: a ChemCam photo of the drill bit from sol 172. Upper right: A Mastcam shot of the drill bit slightly penetrating the rock on sol 174, after the sequence stopped prematurely. Lower two columns: "after" shots at three different zoom levels of the sol 174 drill-tap site (left) and the sol 176 site (right). NASA / JPL / MSSS / LANL / CNES / IRAP / Impreprex