News | December 5, 2016   
       
   Curiosity Rover Team Examining New Drill Hiatus   
   View from the Navigation Camera (Navcam) on the mast of NASA's Curiosity Mars   
   Rover   
       
   This Dec. 2, 2016, view from the Navigation Camera (Navcam) on the mast of   
   NASA's Curiosity Mars Rover shows rocky ground within view while the rover was   
   working at an intended drilling site called "Precipice" on lower Mount Sharp.   
       
   Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech   
   Full image and caption   
       
   http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA21140   
       
   NASA's Curiosity Mars rover is studying its surroundings and monitoring the   
   environment, rather than driving or using its arm for science, while the rover   
   team diagnoses an issue with a motor that moves the rover's drill.   
       
   Curiosity is at a site on lower Mount Sharp selected for what would be the   
   mission's seventh sample-collection drilling of 2016. The rover team learned   
   Dec. 1 that Curiosity did not complete the commands for drilling. The rover   
   detected a fault in an early step in which the "drill feed" mechanism did not   
   extend the drill to touch the rock target with the bit.   
       
   "We are in the process of defining a set of diagnostic tests to carefully   
   assess the drill feed mechanism. We are using our test rover here on Earth to   
   try out these tests before we run them on Mars," Curiosity Deputy Project   
   Manager Steven Lee, at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena,   
   California, said Monday. "To be cautious, until we run the tests on Curiosity,   
   we want to restrict any dynamic changes that could affect the diagnosis. That   
   means not moving the arm and not driving, which could shake it."   
       
   Two among the set of possible causes being assessed are that a brake on the   
   drill feed mechanism did not disengage fully or that an electronic encoder for   
   the mechanism's motor did not function as expected. Lee said that workarounds   
   may exist for both of those scenarios, but the first step is to identify why   
   the motor did not operate properly last week.   
       
   The drill feed mechanism pushes the front of the drill outward from the turret   
   of tools at the end of Curiosity's robotic arm. The drill collects powdered   
   rock that is analyzed by laboratory instruments inside the rover. While arm   
   movements and driving are on hold, the rover is using cameras and a   
   spectrometer on its mast, and a suite of environmental monitoring capabilities.   
       
   At the rover's current location, it has driven 9.33 miles (15.01 kilometers)   
   since landing inside Mars' Gale Crater in August 2012. That includes more than   
   half a mile (more than 840 meters) since departing a cluster of scenic mesas   
   and buttes -- called "Murray Buttes" -- in September 2016. Curiosity has   
   climbed 541 feet (165 meters) in elevation since landing, including 144 feet   
   (44 meters) since departing Murray Buttes.   
       
   The rover is climbing to sequentially higher and younger layers of lower Mount   
   Sharp to investigate how the region's ancient climate changed, billions of   
   years ago. Clues about environmental conditions are recorded in the rock   
   layers. During its first year on Mars, the mission succeeded at its main goal   
   by finding that the region once offered environmental conditions favorable for   
   microbial life, if Mars has ever hosted life. The conditions in long-lived   
   ancient freshwater Martian lake environments included all of the key chemical   
   elements needed for life as we know it, plus a chemical source of energy that   
   is used by many microbes on Earth.   
       
   Curiosity's drill, as used at all 15 of the rock targets drilled so far,   
   combines hammering action and rotating-bit action to penetrate the targets and   
   collect sample material. The drilling attempt last week was planned as the   
   mission's first using a non-percussion drilling method that relies only on the   
   drill's rotary action. Short-circuiting in the percussion mechanism has   
   occurred intermittently and unpredictably several times since first seen in   
   February 2015.   
       
   "We still have percussion available, but we would like to be cautious and use   
   it for targets where we really need it, and otherwise use rotary-only where   
   that can give us a sample," said Curiosity Project Scientist Ashwin Vasavada   
   at JPL.   
       
   JPL, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages NASA's Mars   
   Science Laboratory Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington,   
   and built the project's rover, Curiosity. For more information about the   
   mission, visit:   
       
   http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/   
       
   News Media Contact   
   Guy Webster   
   Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.   
   818-354-6278   
   guy.webster@jpl.nasa.gov   
       
   2016-309   
       
       
   Regards,   
       
   Roger   
      
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