Curiosity Mars Prime Drilling Started

For the first time, NASA's latest robot, Curiosity, perform drilling operations on Mars. In an announcement made ​​on Thursday (07/02/2013) by the researchers involved in this mission, Curiosity mentioned dug a small hole two inches deep into the Martian rock named "John Klein".

Stone John Klein was chosen as the prime drilling locations because they hold the clue of the history of water on Mars. In addition, the activity of so-called "mini-drill test" marks the first use of a hammer and drill Curiosity simultaneously.

This robot is crushed stone and creating particles suitable for use as a sample. Photos from the first drilling Curiosity show perfectly round holes.

"If the results of drilling new holes suitable for processing evaluation escape, rover team plans to proceed with the drilling of the first full in the coming days," said the manager of this mission statement.

The first confirmation of the drilling was received by the team at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, Calif., on Wednesday (06/02/2013) then. Previously, it had done some test drilling, but only use a hammer.

"The team is planning to use Curiosity laboratory instruments to analyze the contents of the stone in order to learn the history of the location," the statement added mission manager.

Curiosity is the most sophisticated man-made robot that deliberately prepared to explore Mars. Since landing on the surface of the red planet on August 5, 2012 ago, Curiosity found no evidence of the flow of water on Mars in the past.