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PIA26403: Curiosity's 42 Drill Holes
 Target Name:  Mars
 Is a satellite of:  Sol (our sun)
 Mission:  Mars Science Laboratory (MSL)
 Spacecraft:  Curiosity
 Instrument:  MAHLI
 Product Size:  4200 x 2700 pixels (w x h)
 Produced By:  Malin Space Science Systems
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA26403.tif (34.04 MB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA26403.jpg (2.717 MB)

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:

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover has collected 42 powderized rock samples with the drill on the end of its robotic arm. This grid shows all 42 holes made by the drill when collecting the samples, from "John Klein" (drilled on Feb. 9, 2013, the 182nd Martian day, or sol, of the mission) in the upper left, to "Kings Canyon" (drilled on Aug. 3, 2024, the 4,263rd Martian day, or sol, of the mission) in the lower right.

Each hole is a little over a half-inch (16 millimeters) wide. The images were captured by the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), a camera on the end of the rover's arm.

After drilling a sample, the powderized rock is trickled into instruments inside of Curiosity's belly that can analyze the composition of the rocks. Those instruments include Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) and Chemistry & Mineralogy (CheMin).

Curiosity was built by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is managed by Caltech in Pasadena, California. JPL leads the mission on behalf of NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. MAHLI was built by Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego.

For more about Curiosity, visit: https://science.nasa.gov/mission/msl-curiosity.

Image Credit:
NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Image Addition Date:
2024-08-27