Mars Science Laboratory Mission Team Members

Oct 28, 2026

Written by Lucy Lim, Planetary Scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

Earth planning date: Friday, Oct. 16, 2026

Following the Basque Lakes drill campaign , Curiosity has returned to a spot just a few meters away from the "Chiu Chiu" block to conduct our next drill campaign. "Chiu Chiu" itself wasn't a good candidate for drilling but the block just beyond it was much more promising, so it became our drive target during Monday's planning. I was on planning Friday as Geology and Mineralogy Science Theme Lead when we received our close-up views of the neighbor block from the post-drive imaging and our team was happy to see that it was jam-packed with the "disc- and needle-" shaped lumps, just like "Chiu Chiu." We quickly gave the science go-ahead to proceed with preparations for drilling at the newly named "Nazca" site.

One major hypothesis about how the "discs and needles" texture formed is that the characteristic shapes were originally…