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Historic First Use of Drill on Mars Set for Jan. 31 – Curiosity’s Sol 174
Image caption: Curiosity will conduct Historic 1st drilling into Martian rock at this spot where the robotic arm is pressing down onto the Red Planet’s surface at the John Klein outcrop of veined hydrated minerals. This panoramic photo mosaic of Navcam camera images was snapped on Jan. 25 & 26, 2013 or Sols 168 & 169 and shows a self-portrait of Curiosity dramatically backdropped with her ultimate destination- Mount Sharp. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Ken Kremer/Marco Di Lorenzo
The long awaited and history making first use of a drill on Mars is set to happen on Thursday, Jan. 31, 2013, or Sol 174, by NASA’s Curiosity Mars Science Lab (MSL) rover, if all goes well, according to science team member Ken Herkenhoff of the USGS.
Curiosity’s first drilling operation entails hammering a test hole into a flat rock at the location where the rover is currently parked at a scientifically interesting outcrop of rocks with veined minerals called ‘John Klein’. See our mosaics above & below illustrating Curiosity’s current location. (…)
Read the rest of Historic First Use of Drill on Mars Set for Jan. 31 – Curiosity’s Sol 174 (466 words)
© Ken Kremer for Universe Today, 2013. | Permalink | No comment |
Post tags: Curiosity, Curiosity Rover, Gale crater, Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), JPL, Mars, Mars Rovers, Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), MSL, NASA, Search for Life
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2013-01-30 22:01:33
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