The NASA spacecraft Mars MSL Curiosity has drilled its first hole on Mars and photos documenting the drill has been sent back to Earth. On these photos, we can see a hole that has a diameter of 1.6 centimeters ( 0,63 inches) and a depth of about five centimeters (2,5 inches).
NASA posted on Twitter; “First drilling on Mars to collect a sample for science is a success,”.
Curiosity will now analyze the samples of the soil and examine whether there is evidence of microscopic life forms.
The drill was the last tool in the set of tools that Curiosity has used since landing on Mars and NASA says that the test drill on the planet’s surface is the greatest achievement thus far.
“We commanded the first full-depth drilling, and we believe we have collected sufficient material from the rock to meet our objectives of hardware cleaning and sample drop-off,” said Avi Okon, an engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Curiosity’s ultimate target is a 5 kilometer (3 miles) high mound of layered sediment rising from the floor of the Gale Crater landing site.
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NASA Curiosity Rover Collects First Martian Bedrock Sample
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