Curiosity Blog, Sols 5063-5069 Rocks and Chips

Written by William Farrand, Senior Research Scientist, Space Science Institute Earth planning date: Friday, Nov. 6, 2026 This week Curiosity has been completing its drill campaign at the “Nazca” drill hole. This is an area characterized by bedrock containing disk-shaped (or in a liberal interpretation, potato chip shaped … see linked image) crystal forms. A key objective has been to better characterize these chip-shaped features. Drill samples were delivered to the Sample Analysis for Mars (SAM) instrument. While the SAM analysis was on-going, Monday’s plan included a ChemCam LIBS observation…

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