Curiosity drills 49th hole at Mars site named Nazca

NASA’s Curiosity rover drilled its 49th hole on Mars at a site nicknamed Nazca on Oct. 23, 2026, according to the mission blog dated Earth planning date Friday, Oct. 23, 2026.

The drilling followed the Basque Lakes campaign. On Oct. 16, 2026, the rover returned to a spot just a few meters from the Chiu Chiu block to begin its next drill campaign. Chiu Chiu proved to be a poor drilling candidate, while the block just beyond it looked more promising and became the rover’s driving target during that day’s planning.

Post-drive images showed the neighboring block was jam-packed with disc- and needle-shaped lumps like those on Chiu Chiu, so the team quickly approved drilling preparations at the newly named Nazca site. Lucy Lim, the Geology and Mineralogy Science Theme Lead on planning Friday, said the team was happy to see the texture in the post-drive views, and the team then assigned the name Nazca to the spot. Lim said, “I was on planning Friday as Geology and Mineralogy Science Theme Lead”.

Before the preload test, the team planned LIBS, DRT and APXS readings at Nazca to characterize its surface composition as thoroughly as possible. NASA’s post confirms that before the drill, the team investigated the block with APXS, MAHLI and ChemCam, all on target Nazca. It also planned a MAHLI Quantitative Relief Model from five overlapping images with doubled focus steps for higher-resolution 3D models.

ChemCam planned a LIBS depth profile on Toucan, a crystal-form-rich target, firing all 150 laser shots on one spot rather than a five-point raster to penetrate about five times deeper than a normal 30-shot observation. Lim called the depth-profile experiment worth pursuing because interior and exterior compositions could differ from modern surface exposure or from the original crystal-growing conditions. The team designed the profile to sample below the crystal surface to test whether the interior composition matches the exterior.

The team also ran a stability test requiring all wheels to sit on solid ground before arm extension, followed by a preload test measuring rock stability and arm forces as the drill bit pressed into the rock. Only after passing those checks did Curiosity drill the hole at Nazca.

Scientists hope the disc- and needle-shaped texture will reveal how the rock formed. A leading hypothesis holds that the texture first appeared as crystals grew, with minerals forming particular shapes depending on microscopic crystal structure, like salt crystals grown at home. The large crystal forms at Nazca and Chiu Chiu provide clues about the temperature when they grew and about the availability of salts and fluids.

The rock’s modern composition may not match the original mineral because other minerals can later replace crystals. Such replacements, called pseudomorphs, keep the first mineral’s shape but not its composition or structure. This caveat matters because the large size of the features otherwise offers clues about growth temperature and the amount of salt and fluid available.

After drilling Nazca, the team dropped the sample into CheMin, with results expected to reach Earth over the coming weekend. ChemCam also took spectral and LIBS readings of the tailings and down the drill hole wall.

Other targets in the same plan included ChemCam LIBS on dark pebbles named Palpala and Puna, a second depth profile on Llama to check whether earlier results vary between locations, disc-shaped forms at Pacaya, layered textures at Condor, and long-distance RMIs of the buttes Mishe Mokwa and Cordillera. Dark pebbles in the area do not all share the same composition, so the team targets only those large enough to stay still during laser analysis. ChemCam investigated Palpala as part of the effort to understand pebble origins. Puna was named as a target in Friday’s planning.

Pacaya, a measurement of the disc-shaped forms, drew the team back to the region. The buttes are long-standing targets of interest for their sedimentary structures and textures.

As twilight cloud season began, the plan included nighttime imaging of Phobos, the larger and brighter of Mars’ two moons, so reflected and scattered sunlight could estimate cloud particle sizes; the team expected high-altitude carbon dioxide clouds. Phobos measurements can take place later at night than similar measurements made using solar observations.

The characterization results should let the team identify the odd textures before drilling, while the drilled sample will provide a fuller picture of the rock. The post says that if the disc-shaped inclusions are crystals, comparing them with Earth examples could make them valuable indicators of past environmental conditions. The team is excited to have found a drill-worthy block, defined first by its abundance of potential crystals. The blog says excitement was high because the block holds abundant potential crystals.

Lucy Lim authored the Curiosity blog post describing preparations to drill at Nazca, covering planning work for Oct. 16, 2026, after the Basque Lakes drill campaign and discussing the crystal-growth hypothesis. Susanne P. Schwenzer, Professor of Planetary Mineralogy at The Open University in the UK, wrote the NASA Science blog post about the Nazca drill hole, dated Earth planning date Friday, Oct. 23, 2026.