NASA's curiosity Rover is in position over a fine-grained, fractured slab of bedrock ready to drill. In about two weeks, the remotely operated vehicle will pull up a sample that it will analyze with its on-board chemistry kit. Such samples are valuable to scientists because they have not been contaminated by harsh surface conditions. The hope is to find out something about the past conditions on Mars.

The sample is not from deep inside the planet. In fact, the rover is only capable of going down about two inches. It will take as much as six weeks to go this distance. The rover operators will go slowly and carefully to avoid an accident that might damage the drill on its first mission. Mars Science Laboratory project manager Richard Cook called the drilling, the mission's most challenging activity since the landing back in August of 2012.