NASA’s Mars Curiosity rover is for the first time testing an improvised new percussive drilling technique intended to pound subsurface samples into powder in hopes of better understanding the shallow Martian subsurface. After a year’s drilling hiatus, Curiosity is again back to drilling samples in rocks at the surface of Mars’ Gale Crater. “It was a challenging task and has not yet been completely proven on Mars,” said Vasavada. As soon as this Friday, the Curiosity team will test a new process for delivering samples into the rover's laboratories . If past drilling is any indicator, there’s still much science to reap.

Source: Forbes May 24, 2018 02:03 UTC