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



    Of course, this device was made not for the pleasure of NASA operators, but for obtaining scientific data on the composition of rocks found on the Kimberley route section. So, around mid-May, it was decided to drill sandstone along the road to Mount Sharp and take a few 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 constituent rocks. It turned out that the rock is sandstone, which, of course, was not a surprise to scientists.


    That is the "training", trial, drilling.

    Sandstone on this section of the route occurs all the time, so there are no longer any stops for drilling (and indeed planned stops) on the way to Mount Sharp. 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, the selected samples placed in the on-board laboratory of the device will be analyzed during the downtime of the rover engines.

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

    Via universityherald

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