NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover has collected 42 powderized rock samples with the drill on the end of its robotic arm. This grid shows all 42 holes made by the drill when collecting the samples, from “John Klein” (drilled on Feb. 9, 2013, the 182nd Martian day, or sol, of the mission) in the upper left, to “Kings Canyon” (drilled on Aug. 3, 2024, the 4,263rd Martian day, or sol, of the mission) in the lower right.
Each hole is a little over a half-inch (16 millimeters) wide. The images were captured by the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), a camera on the end of the rover’s arm.
After drilling a sample, the powderized rock is trickled into instruments inside of Curiosity’s belly that can analyze the composition of the rocks. Those instruments include Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) and Chemistry & Mineralogy (CheMin).
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/PIA26403
NSFW tag where?
I was waiting for “not my proudest fap”
Out of this world.
I can confirm that these are in fact holes
Life, the Universe, and Everything
