NASA’s Curiosity Mars Rover Faces a Particularly Prickly Power Puzzle

After successfully drilling at “Mammoth Lakes 2,” the Curiosity mission team strategized power use for Mars research, integrating environmental observations and remote sensing into the weekend’s activities.

All our patient waiting has been rewarded, as the NASA Curiosity Mars rover team was greeted with the news that our drill attempt of “Mammoth Lakes 2” was successful! You can see the drill hole in the image above, as well as the first place we attempted just to the left (see image below). The actual drilling is only the beginning – we want to see what it is we’ve drilled. We’re starting that process this weekend by using our laser spectrometer (LIBS) to check out the drill hole before delivering some of the drilled material to CheMin (the Chemistry & Mineralogy X-Ray Diffraction instrument) to do its own investigations.