Latest Unmanned spacecraft Stories

PASADENA, Calif., Feb. 20, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has relayed new images that confirm it has successfully obtained the first sample ever collected from the interior of a rock on another planet. No rover has ever has drilled into a rock beyond Earth and collected a sample from its interior. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) Transfer of the powdered-rock sample into an open scoop was visible for the first time in images...

[Watch Video: Curiosity Drills - Animation]    [Watch Video: Drilling Demonstration] Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online NASA released during a teleconference today photos of its Curiosity rover's first-ever sample collected from inside a rock on Mars. Curiosity used its drill to help it collect a sample from inside a Martian rock for the first time earlier this month. During this task, Curiosity drilled about a 0.63-inch wide by 2.5-inch deep hole into a rock...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 20, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA will host a media teleconference at 3 p.m. EST (noon PST) today, Feb. 20, to provide an update on the Mars rover Curiosity mission. This morning, Curiosity engineers confirmed the rover had collected the first-ever sample from inside a rock on Mars. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) The Mars Science Laboratory project and its Curiosity rover are investigating whether conditions on Mars ever...

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory A day after NASA's Mars rover Curiosity drilled the first sample-collection hole into a rock on Mars, the rover's Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument shot laser pulses into the fresh rock powder that the drilling generated. This scene shows a line of pits left by laser hits on the drill tailings. The view is a mosaic of images taken by the remote micro-imager in ChemCam, with color information from Curiosity's Mast Camera. The drilled hole, at...

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory On Mars, as on Earth, sometimes things can take on an unusual appearance. A case in point is a shiny-looking rock seen in a recent image from NASA's Curiosity Mars rover. Some casual observers might see a resemblance to a car door handle, hood ornament or some other type of metallic object. To Ronald Sletten of the University of Washington, Seattle, a collaborator on Curiosity's science team, the object is an interesting study in how wind and the natural...

redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports - Your Universe Online NASA’s Curiosity rover has become the first robot ever to drill into bedrock and collect a sample on Mars, using a drill located at the end of its mechanical arm to bore a hole into fine-grained sediment, then collecting material from the interior for future analysis, the US space agency announced on Friday. According to NASA officials, Curiosity drilled a hole that is approximately 0.63 inch wide and 2.5 inches deep in a rock...

PASADENA, Calif., Feb. 9, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA's Curiosity rover has, for the first time, used a drill carried at the end of its robotic arm to bore into a flat, veiny rock on Mars and collect a sample from its interior. This is the first time any robot has drilled into a rock to collect a sample on Mars. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO ) The fresh hole, about 0.63 inch (1.6 centimeters) wide and 2.5 inches (6.4 centimeters) deep...

Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online NASA announced on Thursday its Curiosity rover has performed a mini drilling test on Mars for the first time. The drill, according to NASA, went through percussion and rotation tests to bore into about 0.8-inches of rock on Mars, generating cuttings for evaluation in advance of the rover's first sample-collection drilling. NASA said this test was confirmed in data received from Mars late Wednesday at the Jet Propulsion...

NASA The bit of the rock-sampling drill on NASA's Mars rover Curiosity left its mark on a Martian rock this weekend during brief testing of the tool's percussive action. The successful activity, called a "drill-on-rock checkout" by the rover team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, is part of a series of tests to prepare for the first drilling in history to collect a sample of rock material on Mars. Another preparatory test, called "mini drill," will precede the full...

RICHMOND, Va., Feb. 5, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Leaders from NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., and NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Wallops Island, Va., will join industry representatives Feb. 6 and 7 to meet with General Assembly members to promote aerospace in Virginia. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) This is the eighth "Aerospace Days," which include meetings with legislators, briefings to various committees such as science...