Curiosity drills Mars surface for the first time

February 12, 2013

NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity drilled into the Martian surface for the first time as part of an effort to investigate if the planet ever had conditions to support microbial life.

Previous Mars probes have had tools to scrape and grind into rock, but never a drill to collect interior samples.

The rover is on a two-year mission and is looking for geologic and chemical conditions needed to support and preserve microbial life. Its ultimate target is a 3-mile- (5-km) high mound of layered sediment rising from the floor of the Gale Crater where it had landed.

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