On the way to Mount Sharp, Curiosity drilled sandstone and "shot" with a laser

Of course, I made this device not for the pleasure of operators from NASA, but to obtain scientific data on the composition of rocks found on the Kimberley route section. So, around mid-May, it was decided to drill sandstone, on the road to Sharpe Mountain, and take several samples of the drilled mass.

Two holes were made, one of which can be considered “training”, it was also compared with the second hole, trying to find differences in the structure and composition of the composing rocks. It turned out that the rock is sandstone, which, of course, was not a surprise for scientists.
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That “training”, trial, drilling.

Sandstone on this part of the route occurs all the time, so that more stops for drilling (and indeed planned stops) on the way to Mount Sharp are not expected. Now the rover is still on the site where the holes were drilled, however, the other day it will go further.



During the advance of the rover, selected samples placed in the on-board laboratory of the device will be analyzed while the rover’s engines are idle.

By the way, in the hole and near you can see the points. This is precisely the traces of a laser, which, evaporating the rock, allows the spectrometer to analyze the composition of the substance at the site of the laser beam.

Via universityherald