Nasa rover Curiosity drills into its first Martian rock
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This image released by Nasa on Saturday, Feb 9, 2013 shows a fresh drill hole, (centre), made by the Curiosity rover on Friday, Feb 8, 2013, next to an earlier test hole. Curiosity has completed its first drill into a Martian rock, a huge milestone since landing in an ancient crater in August 2012. --PHOTO: AP/NASA
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (REUTERS) - The Mars rover Curiosity drilled into the Martian surface for the first time as part of an effort to learn if the planet most like Earth in the solar system ever had conditions to support microbial life, NASA said.
Pictures beamed back to Earth on Saturday showed a hole about 1.6 cm wide and 6.4 cm deep in a patch of fine-grained sedimentary bedrock that appears to have been in contact with water.
The drilling, which took place on Friday, produced a small pile of powder that will be fed into two onboard laboratory instruments to determine the rock's chemical makeup.
"First drilling on Mars to collect a sample for science is a success," NASA posted on Twitter.
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