Testing a new drilling technology at NASA's LRD. This week, Curiosity researchers will test percussion drilling on Mars for the first time since December 2016.
Soon, the Martian rover Curiosity will be able to return to the drilling of rock. Over the past year, engineers have been working to restore the drilling process for a rover that crashed in 2016. This weekend they plan to add percussion to the new technique already used on Mars.
The drill was tested using FED technology without percussion at the end of February. This is not to say that the test was successful, but the researchers obtained valuable results for work in the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. These data will help to continue the improvement of drilling techniques in the coming months. If percussion drilling successfully completes the sample this week, the team will begin testing the new sample delivery process to the rover's internal laboratory. At the same time, JRM engineers will continue to tune the advanced drilling technique and develop ways to improve the productivity of drilling rigs.
For the test, we had to step back, since the study shows that the necessary valuable deposits (60 m below the ridge) were lower. Extraction of rocky rock would help fill the gap in the knowledge of the scientific team about Mount Eolid. As a result, they dream to analyze samples of all the main types of rocks encountered on the way. After all, each layer of Mount Aeolis opens a new chapter in Martian history.
