Red Planet Report

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover has collected its first taste of the layered mountain whose scientific allure drew the mission to choose this part of Mars as a landing site.

Late Wednesday, Sept. 24, the rover’s hammering drill chewed about 2.6 inches (6.7 centimeters) deep into a basal-layer outcrop on Mount Sharp and collected a powdered-rock sample. Data and images received early Thursday at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, confirmed success of this operation. The powder collected by the drilling is temporarily held within… [More at link]

Sol 761, September 25, 2014, update from USGS Scientist Ken Herkenhoff: “The Sol 759 drill hole looks good, but there was a problem with one of the rover’s gyroscopes that halted the transfer of drill sample to the scoop.  This did not…” [More at link]

Sol 758, September 24, 2014. The Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) took this close-up image showing surface texture and cracks in the Pahrump bedrock.

NASA description: Using an onboard focusing process, the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) aboard NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity created this product by merging two to eight images previously taken by the MAHLI, located on the turret at the end of the rover’s robotic arm.

Sol 758 raw images (from all cameras), and Curiosity’s latest location map.