NASA’s Curiosity rover got stuck in a rock, and consequently found itself in a hard place.
Last month, the Mars robot was drilling into a rock sample using its robotic arm, as is routine in its scientific investigations. But when it tried to move on, the persistent rock got stuck to the drill and wouldn’t shake off.
New images released by NASA depict Curiosity’s struggle to detach itself. Far from a momentary inconvenience, it took six days before the rover’s drill was liberated from the clingy rock. The images were captured in black and white by the rover’s hazard cameras, which the agency strung together into a rudimentary video.
Got something weighing you down? Shake it off (like Curiosity)! The Martian explorer unintentionally picked up a rock while drilling a recent sample, but the team was able to dislodge it by having the rover move its robotic arm and vibrate the drill until the rock fell off. pic.twitter.com/LnLYjIBW2H
— NASA Mars (@NASAMars) May 5, 2026
The agency dubbed the rock with attachment issues “Atacama.” At about 1.5 feet in diameter and six inches thick, it weighs around 28.6 pounds. On April 25, Curiosity extended its robotic arm to pierce the rock with its percussive drill with the goal of extracting a pulverized sample for a closer analysis, something it does regularly.
But when the rover attempted to withdraw the arm, the entire rock lifted off the ground. It was stuck to the drill sleeve — something that’s never happened before, according to NASA, even though drilling has broken the upper layers of rocks in the past.
Curiosity’s operators first tried vibrating the drill to dislodge Atacama, but it didn’t work. The footage shows, days later, when the robotic arm tries vibrating the drill again, but this time with the arm reoriented, to no avail.
Salvation came on May 1, when the operators basically threw everything at the wall. They tilted the drill even further, rotated, vibrated, and spun the drill. The rock fell off on the first try — a welcome relief, as the team were anticipating having to try multiple times, perhaps drawing out the saga for yet more days. Less fortuitously for Atacama, the rock shattered as it fell to the ground.
Curiosity has been roaming the Red Planet since 2012, despite its mission originally being planned to last just two years. It was the first rover to drill into Mars, and being the gritty trooper that it is, tirelessly continues this practice to this day. It’s beginning to show its age, but it’s faced plenty of hiccups in the past and so far has weathered them all.
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