A new sample hole aside an earlier abrasion patch at site 69.0, imaged on Sol 1420 (Feb 17, 2025). This partial Front HazCam was cropped and roughly processed from 2 tiles. More images will arrive soon to provide a wider view. The CacheCam images will be eagerly awaited to see if they managed to retain a rock sample, having lost the rock cores in the last two attempts.
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech
The coring seems to have been successful on this occasion.
For reference, the abrasion patch on the right is the latest one (#35), the fourth taken here at Witch Hazel Hill. I do hope that forthcoming mission updates will share more, at least qualitatively, about the drill data for all the recent coring attempts. It would be pretty illuminating to know which rocks have required the most time and force, given the sampling failures and unpredictable nature of the geology here.
Looks like a fairly full tube in that image :)
Fingers crossed for a mission update ASAP
It should be possible to estimate the time to drill all the sample core, but we won’t know how high the settings were for the percussion unless they reveal that in science papers AFAIK that data is not released in the PDS unless covered in the sample dossiers :)
Huzzah!