NASA Curiosity Rover to Drill Martian Sandstone Named 'Windjana'

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover may have a potential drilling candidate that is a Martian slab of sandstone named "Windjana," a NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory news release reported.

According to NASA, Curiosity, which is currently at a rock outcrop called "The Kimberley," will use its onboard cameras and laser and X-ray spectrometery to determine the sandstone's composition. If this target meets criteria, it could become the mission's third drilled rock, and the first one that is not mudstone.

If Windjana, named after a gorge located in Western Australia, is chosen as a drilling site, the rover will collect dust samples from deep within the rock and deliver them to onboard laboratory instruments.

Curiosity previously drilled and analyzed mudstones in Yellowknife Bay in 2013, which revealed evidence of an ancient lakebed that could have supported life. But now investigators want to move on to sandstone and learn more about the cement that holds together the sand-size grains in the rock.

"We want to learn more about the wet process that turned sand deposits into sandstone here," said Curiosity Project Scientist John Grotzinger, of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. "What was the composition of the fluids that bound the grains together? That aqueous chemistry is part of the habitability story we're investigating."

The team also hopes to understand why some sandstone in Windjana's region is harder than others. Drilling of the erosion-resistant material could potentially explain the formation of Gale Crater, where the rover is working now, as well as the gigantic Mount Sharp right in its center.

NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Project is using Curiosity to assess ancient habitable environments and major changes in Martian environmental conditions. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech, built the rover and manages the project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington," the news release concluded.