Watch as NASA's Curiosity Rover Frees Its Drill From a Rock

For 6 days, NASA's Mars rover battled a rock

Curiosity appears unscathed. The giant stone? Not so much.

Mars Curiosity rover shakes loose stuck rock after weeklong struggle

NASAs Curiosity rover continues exploring Mars more than 13 years after landing on the red planet but recently had an unusual incident that left a rock lodged on its drill for nearly a week.According to NASA, the problem began April 25 when the rovers drill bored into a rock nicknamed Atacama. The rock, which weighs about 28.6 pounds, became stuck to the fixed sleeve that surrounds the drill bit when the arm retracted.RELATED STORY | Move over H…

Watch NASA's Curiosity Rover Struggle to Break Loose From a Rock on Mars

The rover spent five days with the rock attached to its arm before finally shaking it off.

Mars rover hits rocky snag with power tool

NASA's Curiosity Rover got a rock stuck to the drill at the end of its robotic arm, necessitating some remote-controlled shaking and jiggling to free the tool. We've all been there, doing a bit of do-it-yourself with a power tool when something awful happens. It might be hitting a pipe while drilling a hole for a Rawlplug. Or punching through a drywall to find nothing beyond. In this case, NASA's trundlebot drilled a sample from a rock, lifted i…

Watch as NASA's Curiosity Rover frees its drill from a rock

This series of images shows NASA's Curiosity Mars rover as it got a rock stuck to the drill on the end of its robotic arm, and—after waving the arm and running the drill a few times—finally detached the rock. The imagery showing the entire process was captured by the black-and-white hazard cameras on the front of Curiosity's chassis and by navigation cameras on its mast (head).

Mars Emergency: How NASA Engineers Remotely Unstuck Curiosity’s Drill Bit

NASA solved Curiosity’s stuck drill issue with careful vibration pulses and robotic-arm adjustments, bringing the rover’s sampling system back online.