Curiosity Collects First Bedrock Sample on Mars

For the first time, NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has drilled into a flat, veiny rock and collected a sample from its interior.

Curiosity drilled deep into a patch of fine-grained sedimentary bedrock and collected the gray rock powder left by the drill.

"This is the biggest milestone accomplishment for the Curiosity team since the sky-crane landing last August, another proud day for America," John Grunsfeld, NASA associate administrator for the agency's Science Mission Directorate, said in a statement.

The rock powder will be sieved and inspected before being delivered to the rover's laboratory instruments for further analysis. The rock is named "John Klein" in memory of the former Mars Science Laboratory deputy project manager John W. Klein, who died in 2011. The rock is believed to hold evidence about long-gone wet environments.

"We commanded the first full-depth drilling, and we believe we have collected sufficient material from the rock to meet our objectives of hardware cleaning and sample drop-off," said Avi Okon, drill cognizant engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

Some rock powder will be used to scour traces of material that may have been deposited onto the hardware, while the rover was still on Earth. The powder will be used to scrub the internal surfaces of the drill bit assembly. After this process, the robotic arm will transfer the powder out of the drill into the scoop, which will be the first chance for NASA scientists to look at the acquired sample, according to NASA.

Rover's Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin) instrument and the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument will perform a detailed analysis of the powder, so as to find some clues on the conditions and the environment under which the rock was created. 

Curiosity landed on the Gale Crater last year as part of a two-year mission to determine if the environmental conditions on the Red Planet have ever supported microbial life.

Once the rover completes its initial drilling test in the coming weeks, it will then prepare to continue its journey to the base of Mount Sharp, a 3.4 mile-high peak in the middle of the Gale Crater.