Curiosity prepares to drill at Mars site Nazca

NASA said in a Curiosity Blog report written by Lucy Lim, a Planetary Scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. The report covered Sols 5043-5049 and was published Wednesday 28 October 2026. It listed Friday, Oct. 16, 2026 as the Earth planning date. After the Basque Lakes drill campaign, Curiosity returned to a spot just a few meters from the Chiu Chiu block.

The block beyond Chiu Chiu had become the drive target during Monday's planning after close-up views showed many disc- and needle-shaped lumps like those at Chiu Chiu. The team gave the science go-ahead to prepare for drilling at the newly named Nazca site.

One major hypothesis was that the shapes formed during crystal growth. The relatively large crystal forms at Nazca and Chiu Chiu were providing clues about the temperature when they grew and the availability of salts and fluids. The report said minerals can later be replaced by minerals with different composition and molecular structure. These replacements are called pseudomorphs.

During preparations for the drill preload test, MAHLI was scheduled to make five overlapping images at slightly different geometries for a detailed three-dimensional relief model. MAHLI was also due to add frames to its highest-resolution imaging by doubling the number of focus mechanism steps. NASA said the observations would improve the resolution of three-dimensional models of the crystal forms.

ChemCam LIBS was scheduled to conduct a depth profile experiment on the nearby Toucan target. Normally, 150 LIBS laser shots were spread across a five-point raster at 30 shots per point. The plan concentrated all 150 shots on one spot. NASA said the profile should penetrate approximately five times deeper than a normal 30-shot point observation and reveal whether deeper composition differed from the surface.

LIBS, DRT and APXS were also scheduled to characterize Nazca's surface before the preload test. The third LIBS observation was assigned to Condor, a nearby block with an exposed finely layered texture. The plan also included nighttime imaging of Phobos, the larger and brighter of Mars' two satellites. NASA said images taken when Phobos was full could help estimate Martian cloud particle sizes and measure high-altitude carbon dioxide clouds.