NASA’s Curiosity Rover Drills into Third Martian Rock ‘Windjana’

NASA's unmanned Curiosity rover has conducted the third drill deep into a Martian rock and has successfully collected portions of the rock powder, according to the U.S. space agency.

In a latest announcement NASA revealed that the hammering drill on the Curiosity rover collected samples of  Martian rock powder from a sandstone slab. The sample retrieved from the third drill will soon be delivered to the internal instruments of rover. The drill was done Monday evening and led to a fresh hole in the slab 'Windjana'  measuring1.6 centimeters in diameter and about 6.5 centimeters deep.

The team working with Curiosity Mars rover received the confirmation on the third drill and the successful recovery of drilled sample, Tuesday.

The new hole is noticeably deeper and is actually located just a few centimeters to the side of the small test hole the rover drilled in the same rock slab last week. It was during this mini drill that the researchers confirmed the target to be an ideal site. Also by drilling deeper the tailings have been forced up. The rover has previously drilled two other rocks near the present site

"The drill tailings from this rock are darker-toned and less red than we saw at the two previous drill sites," said Jim Bell of Arizona State University, Tempe, deputy principal investigator for Curiosity's Mast Camera (Mastcam). "This suggests that the detailed chemical and mineral analysis that will be coming from Curiosity's other instruments could reveal different materials than we've seen before. We can't wait to find out!"

The third drill was done on a sandstone and the previous two drills were at mudstone sites located in the Yellowknife Bay area.  The drill at the mudstone target gave evidence of an ancient lakebed environment and also the chemical changes that probably supported microbial life there.

Currently, the rover is at a waypoint call 'The Kimberley' that is 2.5 miles southwest of Yellowknife Bay.

The new sample from the sandstone slab Windjana will be initially sieved and further investigation will determine the mineral and composition of the rock powder.

The analysis will continue as the rover heads toward Mount Sharp. The main aim of the team is to analyze the cement like material that binds together the sand-size grains in the sandstone.