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PIA16732: Preparation on Earth for Drilling on Mars
The development of the Mars rover Curiosity's capabilities for drilling into a rock on Mars required years of development work. Seen here are some of the rocks used in bit development testing and lifespan testing at JPL in 2007.
 Target Name:  Mars
 Mission:  Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) 
 Spacecraft:  Curiosity
 Product Size:  3042 x 1648 pixels (w x h) 
 Produced By:  JPL 
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA16732.tif (15.05 MB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA16732.jpg (616.5 kB)  

Click on the image above to download a moderately sized image in JPEG format (possibly reduced in size from original)

Original Caption Released with Image:

The development of the Mars rover Curiosity's capabilities for drilling into a rock on Mars required years of development work. This is a group photo of some of the rocks used in bit development testing and lifespan testing in 2007, at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

Most of the holes are the same diameter as holes Curiosity drills: 0.63 inch (1.6 centimeters).

Development and testing models of drills for Curiosity have been used on many types of terrestrial rocks over a span of more than five years.

JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages the Mars Science Laboratory Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. JPL designed and built the rover.

More information about Curiosity is online at http://www.nasa.gov/msl and http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/.

Image Credit:
NASA/JPL-Caltech

Image Addition Date:
2013-02-20