Today On Mars: Curiosity Is Pounding Rocks
Drill Bit In Place The tool at the center of the image contains Curiosity's drill. The bit, which is the center peg between the two side pegs, is lowered toward the ground in this image. NASA/JPL-CaltechThe rover is getting ready to fire up its drill. The beefy arm on the Mars rover Curiosity is equipped with many tools, but none is more exciting to planetary geologists than its drill. Curiosity is the first robot ever sent to another world equipped to drill into that world, and find out its secrets. A long series of tests, culminating in a drill-punch over the weekend, is getting NASA ready for the first exciting boring operation. Curiosity's drill bit slammed into the surface over the weekend, but it didn't rotate, so it wasn't really drilling. It just proved that it can breach a rock's surface and expose its interior. This is called a "drill-on-rock checkout," and...