The Curiosity rover from NASA has spent more than 13 years on Mars, battling extreme radiation levels, dust storms, and extreme cold that reaches down to -200°F or -129°C. However, a mere stone in April 2026 thwarted everything that Mars’ environment was capable of doing, leaving the rover stranded for six whole days. The stone has been called “Atacama” by NASA engineers, who found it extremely difficult to prize off the rover’s drill bit.
A Rock That Wouldn’t Let Go
According to Space.com, on April 25, 2026, Curiosity took a sample from “Atacama”, which was drilled out using the rover’s rotary-percussive drill. The sample is approximately 1.5 feet in diameter at the base of the hole, about 6 inches thick, and weighs approximately 28.6 pounds (13 kilograms). Notable in this scene is that the entire rock was lifted out of the ground when the sample was retracted from the rover’s arm. The purpose of the drill was to chop the rock up into fine-grained material that the rover’s onboard instruments can determine the chemistry and mineral composition of.
Six Days, One Solution
The engineers began by vibrating the drill without success. Then on April 29, the robotic arm was rotated, and vibration was performed again. Sand was released from the Atacama, but the rock remained unyielding. However, on May 1, the drill was tipped more, and the vibration was performed while the drill bit was rotated at the same time. It succeeded only on the very first attempt, when Atacama broke and dropped to the ground of Mars. The drill aboard Curiosity crushes rock into powder and feeds it to the advanced instruments in the rover, which map the geological history of the planet regardless of the minor setback.
