[meteorite-list] NASA Mars Rover Confirms First Drilled Martian Rock Sample

[Ron Baalke]

Feb. 20, 2013

Dwayne Brown 
Headquarters, Washington 
202-358-1726 
dwayne.c.brown at nasa.gov 

Guy Webster 
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. 
818-354-6278 
guy.webster at jpl.nasa.gov 

RELEASE: 13-059

NASA MARS ROVER CONFIRMS FIRST DRILLED MARTIAN ROCK SAMPLE

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has relayed new images 
that confirm it has successfully obtained the first sample ever 
collected from the interior of a rock on another planet. No rover has 
ever has drilled into a rock beyond Earth and collected a sample from 
its interior. 

Transfer of the powdered-rock sample into an open scoop was visible 
for the first time in images received Wednesday at NASA's Jet 
Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif. 

"Seeing the powder from the drill in the scoop allows us to verify for 
the first time the drill collected a sample as it bore into the 
rock," said JPL's Scott McCloskey, drill systems engineer for 
Curiosity. "Many of us have been working toward this day for years. 
Getting final confirmation of successful drilling is incredibly 
gratifying. For the sampling team, this is the equivalent of the 
landing team going crazy after the successful touchdown." 

The drill on Curiosity's robotic arm took in the powder as it bored a 
2.5-inch (6.4-centimeter) hole into a target on flat Martian bedrock 
on Feb. 8. The rover team plans to have Curiosity sieve the sample 
and deliver portions of it to analytical instruments inside the 
rover. 

The scoop now holding the precious sample is part of Curiosity's 
Collection and Handling for In-Situ Martian Rock Analysis (CHIMRA) 
device. During the next steps of processing, the powder will be 
enclosed inside CHIMRA and shaken once or twice over a sieve that 
screens out particles larger than 0.006 inch (150 microns) across. 

Small portions of the sieved sample later will be delivered through 
inlet ports on top of the rover deck into the Chemistry and 
Mineralogy (CheMin) instrument and Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) 
instrument. 

In response to information gained during testing at JPL, the 
processing and delivery plan has been adjusted to reduce use of 
mechanical vibration. The 150-micron screen in one of the two test 
versions of CHIMRA became partially detached after extensive use, 
although it remained usable. The team has added precautions for use 
of Curiosity's sampling system while continuing to study the cause 
and ramifications of the separation. 

The sample comes from a fine-grained, veiny sedimentary rock called 
"John Klein," named in memory of a Mars Science Laboratory deputy 
project manager who died in 2011. The rock was selected for the first 
sample drilling because it may hold evidence of wet environmental 
conditions long ago. The rover's laboratory analysis of the powder 
may provide information about those conditions. 

NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Project is using the Curiosity rover 
with its 10 science instruments to investigate whether an area within 
Mars' Gale Crater ever has offered an environment favorable for 
microbial life. JPL manages the project for NASA's Science Mission 
Directorate in Washington. 

An image of the drill's rock powder held in the scoop is online at: 

http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA16729 

For more about the mission, visit: 

http://www.nasa.gov/msl 

You can follow the mission on Facebook and Twitter at: 

http://www.facebook.com/marscuriosity 

and 

http://www.twitter.com/marscuriosity 
	
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