NASA's Mars Curiosity rover tests new way to drill

Washington: NASA’s Mars Curiosity rover has conducted the first test of a new drilling technique on the red planet since its drill stopped working reliably, the US space agency said.

This early test produced a hole about one centimetre deep at a target called Lake Orcadie – not enough for a full scientific sample, but enough to validate that the new method works mechanically, according to NASA.

This was just the first in what will be a series of tests to determine how well the new drill method can collect samples, it said. “We are now drilling on Mars more like the way you do at home,” said Steven Lee, deputy project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.