Everything went well over the weekend, and the drill target seems to be nice and stable, so for the Sol724 plan, Curiosity will do a "mini-drill" into Bonanza King .
Everything went well over the weekend, and the drill target seems to be nice and stable, so for the Sol
724 plan, Curiosity will do a “mini-drill” into Bonanza King . This activity is complicated enough that
there wasn’t much of a chance to do any science observations other than those that support the drilling,
except for standard DAN and REMS environmental monitoring. The mini-drill activity does basically what
it sounds like: it drills just a little bit into the target. We do this to make sure the rock characteristics are
safe for a full-depth drill hole. One step closer to a 4th full drill hole on Mars!
Dates of planned rover activities described in these reports are subject to change due to a variety of factors related to the Martian environment, communication relays and rover status.
Written by Ryan Anderson, Planetary Geologist at USGS Astrogeology Science Center