Curiosity Rover Collects First Martian Bedrock Sample 51
littlesparkvt writes "NASA's Curiosity rover has, for the first time, used a drill carried at the end of its robotic arm to bore into a flat, veiny rock on Mars and collect a sample from its interior. This is the first time any robot has drilled into a rock to collect a sample on Mars."
Re:Article (Score:4, Interesting)
The hell with bedrock! Curiosity has found a piece of metal [theatlantic.com] embedded in rock. Doesn't appear to be Mardi Gras beads either.
They should be tugging on that thing to see what happens!
Re:Erosion (Score:5, Interesting)
Do not forget that volcanism and liquid water were also once a factor in weathering. There is no life, that we know of, to speed up erosion - so it is possible that drilling only a few cm will reveal geologic history on different timescale than the equivalent depth on Earth.
Granted the top layer, which is all we have studied up until now will be nothing exciting (likely layers of dust deposited over millennia), but unexposed layers have a lot of historic potential. The layers may even be old enough to portray Mars during a more interesting period, perhaps when it still had a respectable magnetic field and atmosphere.