Curiosity Mars Rover Tests New Drilling Technique But More Testing Needed

NASA’s Curiosity rover raised robotic arm with drill pointed skyward while exploring Vera Rubin Ridge – backdropped by the base of Mount Sharp inside Gale Crater. This navcam camera mosaic was stitched from raw images taken on Sol 1912, Dec. 22, 2017 and colorized. Credit: NASA/JPL/Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com/Marco Di Lorenzo

Ken Kremer  --   SpaceUpClose.com  --   22 Mar 2018

CAPE CANAVERAL, FL-  For the first time in more than a year, NASA’s Mars Curiosity rover carried out the first tests of a new drilling technique on Red Planet rock since its drill stopped working reliably in December 2016. 

Although the rover succeeding a drilling to a shallow depth, the results demonstrated that  more testing will be needed because the hole was not deep enough to collect a sample. 

See the drill bit and two stabilizers illustrated in our lead mosaic created by the imaging team of Ken Kremer & Marco Di Lorenzo – backdropped by Mount Sharp on Mars.

Engineers programmed Curiosity to conduct the initial drill test on Feb. 26 at a target called ‘Lake Orcadie’ at the six-wheeled robots current location on Vera Rubin Ridge.  

“The action produced a hole about a half-inch (1-centimeter) deep -- not enough for a full scientific sample, but enough to validate that the new method works mechanically,” NASA announced.

“This was just the first in what will be a series of tests to determine how well the new drill method can collect samples. If this drill had achieved sufficient depth to collect a sample, the team would have begun testing a new sample delivery process, ultimately delivering to instruments inside the rover.”

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover used a new drill method to produce a hole on February 26, 2018 in a target named Lake Orcadie. The hole marks the first operation of the rover's drill since a motor problem began acting up more than a year ago.  Credit:  NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Normally the boring drills about 2.5 inches (5 cm)  into the Red Planet.

So the ‘Lake Orcadie’ test campaign of the new technique cored far less into Mars and was not enough to collect a useable sample for analysis by the rovers miniaturized pair of Chemistry lab instruments: Sample Analysis at Mars, or SAM, and Chemistry and Mineralogy, or CheMin.

Curiosity has drilled into Martian rocks 15 times so far since landing on Mars on Aug. 6, 2012 inside Gale Crater, but not at all in the past 14 months. 

Since December 2016 a faulty motor in the drill has prevented the robots drill bit from extending and retracting normally.

The bit is located between the two finger-like stabilizers that are used to steady it against the rocket targets.  See out lead mosaic from Sol 1912 showing the drill bit and stabilizers backdropped by Mount Sharp.

The engineering team had to devise a workaround to keep the drill bit permanently extended out far enough past the stabilizers to drill deep enough into rocket to collect a usable amount of pulverized samples to deliver to the two chemistry labs - something it was not designed to do. 

So they had to hack the software to use the drill without any interaction from the stabilizers.  

It took many months of effort to devise a software solution and then test it on the nearly identical rover in the Mars yard at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA.

The new method is what the team describes as ‘freehand’ and is a lot like how we humans use a hand drill here on Earth. The old method is more like using a drill press.  

"We're now drilling on Mars more like the way you do at home," said Steven Lee, deputy project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. "Humans are pretty good at re-centering the drill, almost without thinking about it. Programming Curiosity to do this by itself was challenging -- especially when it wasn't designed to do that."

Watch this NASA JPL video showing and describing the new drilling technique.

Video Caption: After more than a year without the use of the Curiosity Mars rover's drill, engineers have devised a workaround and tested it for the first time on the Red Planet. More testing of the drill method is planned for the future.   Credit: NASA/JPL

An unfortunate byproduct of implementing the new freehand drill technique with the extended drill bit is that the rover can no longer use the hand mounted CHIMRA  (Collection and Handling for In-Situ Martian Rock Analysis) mechanism that sieves, portions and delivers the rock powder to the rover's instruments

“JPL also had to invent a new way to deposit the powder without this device. The new solution makes Curiosity look as though it is adding seasoning to its science, shaking out grains from the drill's bit as if it were tapping salt from a shaker,” the MSL team said.

“This tapping has been successfully tested here on Earth -- but Earth's atmosphere and gravity are very different from that of Mars. Whether rock powder on Mars will fall out in the same volume and in a controlled way has yet to be seen.”

The next step was to try a full depth drill with the new technique.

The Curiosity Mars rover snaps a dramatic selfie at the ‘Torridon’ quadrangle while making long stretches of wheel tracks exploring assorted rock layers, bedrock outcrops and mineral exposures around Vera Rubin Ridge with an exquisitely sharp view of the distant rim of the Gale Crater landing site visible in the background on the Red Planet.  This navcam camera mosaic was stitched and colorized by Ken Kremer and Marco Di Lorenzo using raw images taken on Sol 1896, Dec. 6, 2017.  Credit: NASA/JPL/Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com/Marco Di Lorenzo/SpaceUpClose.com

As of today, Sol 1999, March 22, 2018, Curiosity has driven over 11.6 miles (18.7 kilometers) since its August 2012 landing inside Gale Crater from the landing site to the ridge, and taken over 470,000 amazing images. 

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