NASA Frees Curiosity Rover Drill Stuck on Martian Rock

The Curiosity rover drilled into a rock on April 25 to collect a sample. When the rover retracted its robotic arm, the entire rock lifted off the Martian surface. The 28.6-pound rock remained stuck to the sleeve surrounding the drill's rotating tip.

This is the first time NASA has encountered a situation like this during the rover's nearly 14-year mission. Previous drilling operations had caused cracks or breaks in upper layers of Martian rocks but none had remained attached to the drill sleeve.

Black-and-white obstacle-detection cameras on the rover's chassis captured images of the event. Engineers used the images to begin work immediately. They moved the robotic arm and operated the drill repeatedly over several days. Initial attempts to remove the rock by vibrating the drill were unsuccessful.

On April 29 the team adjusted the position of the robotic arm and tried vibration again. The effort only knocked some sand off the rock. On May 1 engineers tilted the drill more, rotated and vibrated it, and spun the drill bit. The team had expected to repeat these operations several times.

The rock broke loose on the first attempt. It shattered into multiple pieces when it hit the Martian soil.

The Curiosity rover was developed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. It landed on Mars in August 2012. Its mission includes searching for evidence that the planet might once have had conditions that could support microbial life. In 2020 the rover conducted an experiment in the Glen Torridon region within Gale Crater.

That area contains clay minerals that strongly indicate the presence of water in the past. The rover collected data using its Sample Analysis on Mars instruments.