gyanjyoti

NASA's mass rover "CURIOSITY", a car sized robotic rover equipped with sophisticated instruments meant to explore "Gale crater" on Mars as part of Mars Exploration Program,  has conducted some successful ventures on the Red Planet since its landing in the month of August. Major among them being - February's "mini drill test" and April's plunge into an autonomous operation mode for approx. 25 days to monitor atmospheric and radiation data. It exercised the first drilling operation on the "John Klein rock" using a small drill bead by means of pulverizing rock upto 0.8 inches depth hence collecting samples of martian rock in powdered form. "Pre-drilling observations of this rock yielded indications of one or more episodes of wet environment conditions", explained mission manager. Examination is still being carried out in the special onboard laboratory to gain more insight on the geological past and conditions of Red Planet.