{"id":428989,"date":"2026-05-16T00:45:52","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T14:45:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?guid=44668b0a06b2cec9322911393f92e678"},"modified":"2026-05-16T00:45:52","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T14:45:52","slug":"curiosity-shakes-loose-a-pesky-rock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=428989","title":{"rendered":"Curiosity Shakes Loose a Pesky Rock"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"\" class=\"hds-media hds-module wp-block-image\">\n<div class=\"margin-left-auto margin-right-auto nasa-block-align-inline\">\n<div class=\"hds-media-wrapper margin-left-auto margin-right-auto\">\n<figure class=\"hds-media-inner hds-cover-wrapper hds-media-ratio-none \"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/pia26724.png\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2048\" height=\"1129\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/pia26724.png?w=2048\" class=\"attachment-2048x2048 size-2048x2048\" alt=\"A large, reddish-brown rock as seen by NASA&#039;s Curiosity Mars rover. The rock is broken into several pieces. A drill hole is visible in the top middle piece.\" style=\"transform: scale(1); transform-origin: 50% 50%; object-position: 50% 50%; object-fit: cover;\" block_context=\"nasa-block\" loading=\"eager\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/pia26724.png 4594w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/pia26724.png?resize=300,165 300w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/pia26724.png?resize=768,423 768w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/pia26724.png?resize=1024,565 1024w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/pia26724.png?resize=1536,847 1536w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/pia26724.png?resize=2048,1129 2048w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/pia26724.png?resize=400,221 400w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/pia26724.png?resize=600,331 600w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/pia26724.png?resize=900,496 900w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/pia26724.png?resize=1200,662 1200w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/pia26724.png?resize=2000,1103 2000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2048px) 100vw, 2048px\" \/><\/a><\/figure><figcaption class=\"hds-caption padding-y-2\">\n<div class=\"hds-credits\">NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/MSSS<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>After <a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/mission\/msl-curiosity\/\" rel=\"noopener\">NASA\u2019s Curiosity Mars rover<\/a> drilled a sample from this rock on April 25, 2026, it withdrew its robotic arm and pulled the entire rock off the surface with it. Engineers spent several days repositioning the arm and vibrating the drill to try and get the rock loose. When it finally detached on May 1, the rock broke into pieces.<\/p>\n<p>This close-up image of the rock was produced by Curiosity\u2019s Mast Camera, or Mastcam, <a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/photojournal\/nasas-curiosity-takes-close-look-at-rock-that-got-stuck-on-drill\/\" rel=\"noopener\">on May 6<\/a>. Nicknamed \u201cAtacama,\u201d the rock is estimated to be 1.5 feet in diameter at its base and 6 inches thick. It would weigh roughly 28.6 pounds on Earth (and about a third of that on Mars). The circular hole produced by Curiosity\u2019s drill is visible in the rock.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/photojournal\/nasas-curiosity-rover-frees-its-drill-from-a-rock\/\" rel=\"noopener\">See Atacama stuck on Curiosity\u2019s drill<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/MSSS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After NASA\u2019s Curiosity Mars rover drilled a sample from this rock on April 25, 2026, it withdrew its robotic arm and pulled the entire rock off the surface with it. Engineers spent several days repositioning the arm and vibrating the drill to try and get the rock loose. When it finally detached on May 1, [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7727],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-428989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mars"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=428989"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428989\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":428990,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428989\/revisions\/428990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=428989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=428989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=428989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}