Overview
- After an April 25 drill at a target nicknamed Atacama, the entire 13‑kilogram slab lifted out stuck to the fixed sleeve that surrounds Curiosity’s rotating drill bit.
- An initial shake plan failed to dislodge it, and a second try on Wednesday, April 29, reoriented the arm and vibrated again with no change.
- NASA says the rover freed the rock Friday, May 1, by tilting the arm, rotating and vibrating the drill, then spinning the bit, and the piece shattered when it hit the ground.
- NASA released black‑and‑white hazard‑camera and mast navigation‑camera footage Tuesday that documents the snag and the successful release step by step.
- JPL, managed by Caltech, leads the mission for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, and coverage highlighted that engineers executed the fix from roughly 334 million kilometers away.