The swap to the rover’s redundant computer took place yesterday and placed the rover into a “safe mode.” Over then next several days the rover team will be bringing the rover into operational status.

“We switched computers to get to a standard state from which to begin restoring routine operations,” said Richard Cook, project manager for the Mars Science Laboratory Project at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).

These computer issues are surfacing just as Curiosity is in the midst of a historical sample analysis. Earlier this week the rover had begun analyzing two small samples of rock powder taken from the inside of a Martian rock using the rover’s hammering drill.

The computer issue was revealed on Wednesday, February 27 when the rover failed to send recorded data back to Earth, instead sending only status information. It was found that Curiosity had not entered its latest planned “sleep mode.” The “memory issue” on Curiosity’s first computer is thought to be related to a corrupted flash memory.

The rover will now operate on its “B-side” computer, which was tested during its flight to Mars. The “A-side” computer was used from the rover’s landing on the red planet until this week.

“While we are resuming operations on the B-side, we are also working to determine the best way to restore the A-side as a viable backup,” said Magdy Bareh, leader of the mission’s anomaly resolution team at JPL.

(Image courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech)

“Data from the instruments have confirmed the deliveries,” said Jennifer Trosper, Curiosity Mission Manager oat NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).

The rock powder comes from the inside of a rock on Mars – the first sample of its kind to be collected. The powder was taken from a small hole that Curiosity drilled in a rock earlier this month. Last week NASA researchers were able to confirm that the rover had actually collected the powder.

The powder had now been placed into Curiosity’s Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin) and Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instruments. The CheMin instrument will examine the sample’s mineral composition, while the SAM instrument will determine its chemical composition. The analyses will take place over “the coming days and weeks.”

Both instruments were tested in late 2012 as Curiosity took several scoops of Martian soil while exploring the sandy “Rocknest” area.

The testing of the rover‘s hammering drill the successful rock powder sample gathering were described at the time to be “the biggest milestone accomplishment for the Curiosity team since the sky-crane landing last August.” Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) researchers at JPL have now declared Curiosity to be “fully operational.”

(Image courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)

Today, NASA scientists have released images confirming that the first-ever sample of drilled rock dust is safely in one of Curiosity’s sample scoops.

“Seeing the powder from the drill in the scoop allows us to verify for the first time the drill collected a sample as it bore into the rock,” said Scott McCloskey, drill systems engineer for Curiosity at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). “Many of us have been working toward this day for years. Getting final confirmation of successful drilling is incredibly gratifying. For the sampling team, this is the equivalent of the landing team going crazy after the successful touchdown.”

In the coming days, the rock sample will be enclosed in Curiosity’s Collection and Handling for In-Situ Martian Rock Analysis (CHIMRA) instrument and sieved to remove particles larger than 150 microns (0.006 inches). Small portions of the sample will then be placed inside the rover’s Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin) and Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instruments to determine its mineral and chemical make-up.

The historic drilling took place on February 8, when the rover used its drill to bore a 6.4 centimeter (2.5-inch) hole into a rock named “John Klein.” Researchers hope the rock dust will provide information about Mars’ wet past, and possibly about whether life could have once existed on the red planet.

(Image courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)

Curiosity left a hole 0.63 inches (1.6 cm) wide and 2.5 inches (6.4 cm) deep in a flat, veiny rock named “John Klein.” As the rover drilled into the rock, rock powder traveled up flutes on the drill bit, which has holding chambers for the powder. The sample obtained by the rover should help researchers determine whether the rock was ever underwater.

“The most advanced planetary robot ever designed is now a fully operating analytical laboratory on Mars,” said John Grunsfeld, NASA associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate. “This is the biggest milestone accomplishment for the Curiosity team since the sky-crane landing last August, another proud day for America.”

Over the next few days, the rock powder will be processed and tested to determine its mineral make-up and chemical composition.

“We’ll take the powder we acquired and swish it around to scrub the internal surfaces of the drill bit assembly,” said Scott McCloskey, drill systems engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). “Then we’ll use the arm to transfer the powder out of the drill into the scoop, which will be our first chance to see the acquired sample.”

The successful drilling marks another milestone for the rover itself. All of Curiosity’s instruments have now been tested on Mars, and the rover has been deemed fully operational.

“Building a tool to interact forcefully with unpredictable rocks on Mars required an ambitious development and testing program,” said Louise Jandura, chief engineer for Curiosity’s sample system at JPL. “To get to the point of making this hole in a rock on Mars, we made eight drills and bored more than 1,200 holes in 20 types of rock on Earth.”

The “drill-on-rock checkout” left a mark on the rock, named “John Klein,” chosen as the target for the first drill sampling of rock material in the history of Mars exploration. It was another step in the drill testing announced last week.

There is still one more test to be performed before the actual drilling can commence. A “mini drill” test will use both the rotary and percussive capabilities of the drill to create a ring of rock powder around a hole. The test will, say researchers, allow them to test the material and see if it is a dry powder that can be tested by Curiosity’s sample handling equipment.

The rover team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) has been preparing to use Curiosity’s drill for almost two Earth months now. The event has been carefully prepared for in detail, with researchers taking time to choose a suitable rock target and test every aspect of the drill. Mars Science Laboratory Project Manager Richard Cook has called the event “this mission’s most challenging activity since the landing.”

Researchers announced that they have placed the drill onto a series of locations and pressed down on it with Curiosity’s arm. This “pre-load testing allowed engineers to check the force applied to the drill and cross-check it with their predictions. The next step is a pre-load test at night, to make sure that temperature changes do not add to the stress on the rover‘s arm. Temperatures at Curiosity’s location can range from 0 degrees Celsius (32 degrees Fahrenheit) to to 65 degrees Celsius (85 degrees Fehrenheit).

“We don’t plan on leaving the drill in a rock overnight once we start drilling, but in case that happens, it is important to know what to expect in terms of stress on the hardware,” said Daniel Limonadi, the lead systems engineer for Curiosity’s surface sampling and science system at NASA‘s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). “This test is done at lower pre-load values than we plan to use during drilling, to let us learn about the temperature effects without putting the hardware at risk.”

The rest of the week will be filled with hardware checks and an evaluation of the rock that has been selected as the first drilling site. Two weeks ago a flat, veined rock named “John Klein” was chosen for the honor.

“We are proceeding with caution in the approach to Curiosity’s first drilling,” said Limonadi. “This is challenging. It will be the first time any robot has drilled into a rock to collect a sample on Mars.”

This was the first time the rover has taken photos at night using the white and ultraviolet lights on its Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) instrument. The MAHLI is an adjustable-focus camera that has its own LED light sources.

“The purpose of acquiring observations under ultraviolet illumination was to look for fluorescent minerals,” said Ken Edgett, MAHLI principal investigator at Malin Space Science Systems. “The science team is still assessing the observations. If something looked green, yellow, orange or red under the ultraviolet illumination, that’d be a more clear-cut indicator of fluorescence.”

“Sayunei” is located in a low-lying area NASA has named “Yellowknife Bay.” The area is the one chosen by the rover team to be the site of Curiosity’s first test of its hammering drill. Last week, researchers announced that a rock in “Yellowknife Bay” named “John Klein” has been tentatively chosen to be the subject of the rover’s first drilling. Richard Cook, the Mars Science Laboratory project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory described the drilling test at the “most challenging activity since the landing.”

The photo below is of “Sayunei” under ultraviolet light:

(Images courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)

Today, researchers have announced that the a flat rock with pale veins has been chosen as the target. Curiosity is currently on-route to the rock, which NASA has named “John Klein” in tribute to the former Mars Science Laboratory deputy manager of the same name who died in 2011. If the rock still looks interesting to researchers when the rover gets a closer view, it will become the first Martian rock to be drilled for a sample.

“Drilling into a rock to collect a sample will be this mission’s most challenging activity since the landing,” said Richard Cook, Mars Science Laboratory project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). “It has never been done on Mars. The drill hardware interacts energetically with Martian material we don’t control. We won’t be surprised if some steps in the process don’t go exactly as planned the first time through.”

The rover team is hoping to find evidence of Mars’ watery past inside John Klein. The rock was chosen because of the light-toned veins that were detected using Curiosity’s Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam), indicating elevated levels of calcium, sulfur, and hydrogen.

“These veins are likely composed of hydrated calcium sulfate, such as bassinite or gypsum,” said Nicolas Mangold, ChemCam team member at the Laboratoire de Planétologie et Géodynamique de Nantes. “On Earth, forming veins like these requires water circulating in fractures.”

(Image courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)

The DRT is a motorized, wire-bristle brush that was engineered to prepare rock surfaces for “enhanced inspection” by Curiosity’s other instruments. The brush is built into the turret end of the rover‘s arm alongside its Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer, Mars Hand Lens Imager, and hammering drill.

The Curiosity team chose a target rocked named “Ekwir_1″ as the target for the first use of the DRT. The results of the test were successful, and can be seen in the photo above. Ekwir_1 sits in Yellowknife Bay alongside other rocks scientists are evaluating for use as drilling targets.

“We wanted to be sure we had an optimal target for the first use,” said Diana Trujillo, activity lead for the DRT at NASA‘s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “We need to place the instrument within less than half an inch of the target without putting the hardware at risk. We needed a flat target, one that wasn’t rough, one that was covered with dust. The results certainly look good.”

(Image courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)

Though Curiosity managed to take plenty of photos over the break, the rover is now back in full action. It resumed driving around Yellowknife Bay on January 3 and pulled up to a rock feature NASA has named “Snake River.” The feature is a “thin curving line of darker rock cutting through flatter rocks and jutting above the sand.”

“It’s one piece of the puzzle,” said John Grotzinger, the mission’s project scientist. “It has a crosscutting relationship to the surrounding rock and appears to have formed after the deposition of the layer that it transects.”

Curiosity’s latest jaunt took it 3 meters (about 10 feet), bringing the rover’s total driving distance on the red planet to 702 meters (2,303 feet). The rover is currently preparing to use its hammering drill for the first time. The drill will powder an interior sample of rock and collect if for analysis by Curiosity’s other instruments.

“We had no surprises over the holidays,” said Richard Cook, the mission’s project manager. “Now, Curiosity is back on the move. The area the rover is in looks good for our first drilling target.”