Curiosity update: Drill all the rocks!

Sols 2383-2385, April 19, 2019, update by MSL scientist Abigail Fraeman: Yestersol’s drill pre-load test was successful, so today we are go for a drill attempt at “Kilmarie”! The front hazcam image from yesterday’s test (shown above) is a helpful visual for understanding how close our new drill location will be to the last drill at “Aberlady.” In this image, you can see Curiosity resting the point of the drill on the future Kilmarie drill target along with the old Aberlady drill hole, a little to the left of the arm. It’s been a while since we’ve drilled two locations so close together! Avid readers of this blog will recall we decided to drill again in this area because we saw some irregularities during drilling Aberlady. Specifically, we weren’t sure we’d collected enough drill material for both CheMin and SAM analyses at the Aberlady location, so we’re hoping we can be more confident in the amount of sample we collect at Kilmarie… [More at link]