Curiosity update: Drill fault

Sol 1537, December 1, 2016, update by USGS scientist Ken Herkenhoff: Unfortunately, the much-anticipated rotary-only drilling experiment did not even start due to a drill fault that is currently being investigated.  This type of drill fault appears to be unrelated to the previous short circuits during percussion, but more study is needed.  So the tactical planning team had to scramble to put together a plan while the drill experts work to recover from this anomaly.  Luckily, the fault did not preclude non-drilling arm activities, so we picked the bright target “Thomas Bay” for contact science.  We were also able to fit a lot of… [More at link]