Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
Problems in space can be complex and dangerous. But NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover spent the end of April embroiled in a much simpler problem: It got stuck in a rock.
Curiosity’s problems began on April 25 when it drilled into a 28-pound rock that NASA named Atacama. In a moment that could have come straight out of a Flintstones episode, Curiosity became stuck, and when it tried to pull out its drill, it took the entire rock with it.
“Drilling has fractured or separated the upper layers of rock in the past, but the rocks have never remained attached to the crater lid,” NASA said. In a blog post.
Such problems are funny here on Earth, where we can just shake the tool and the rocks until they are free. Not so on Mars. Radio signals can take approximately half an hour to travel between Earth and Mars. Curiosity’s controllers had to send instructions and then wait more than 30 to 45 minutes to see if the rover did anything.
It took five days of troubleshooting, but NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory crew finally freed Curiosity from its overly attached new friend on May 1.
Curiosity shook the rock and twirled it in the air for several days before finally shaking it off.
Watch Curiosity free itself from the stickiest rocks on Mars
NASA’s curiosity is known for Submit reviews Follower Surface of Mars. However, this time, cameras caught Curiosity doing something many construction workers have to deal with every day. NASA posted two GIFs of the event. The first is Head-on shotand the other from Top angle.
In the GIFs, you can see Curiosity drilling into the rock, a task that has been done many times before. However, when the vehicle raises its arm, the rock comes with it. The spacecraft initially pauses before resigning itself to its fate and lifting the rock off Earth.
Since these are stitched images, you don’t see the precise movements of the drilling arm, but NASA says the rock was tilted, and the drill was rotated and shaken several times over the course of the events. Finally the rock finally breaks free.
A NASA representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment.