NASA's Curiosity rover tests new drilling method on Mars
Washington, May 24: After a mechanical problem took NASA Mars rover Curiosity's drill offline in December 2016, it has now successfully tested a new drilling method on the Red Planet, making a 50-millimetre deep hole in a target called "Duluth", NASA has said.
Engineers working with the Curiosity Mars rover have been hard at work testing a new way for the rover to drill rocks and extract powder from them.
On May 20, that effort produced the first drilled sample on Mars in more than a year, NASA said in a statement on Wednesday.
The new technique, called Feed Extended Drilling, keeps the drill's bit extended out past two stabiliser posts that were originally used to steady the drill against Martian rocks.
It lets Curiosity drill using the force of its robotic arm, a little more like the way a human would drill into a wall at home.
"The team used tremendous ingenuity to devise a new drilling technique and implement it on another planet," said Curiosity Deputy Project Manager Steve Lee of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
"Those are two vital inches of innovation from 60 million miles away. We're thrilled that the result was so successful," Lee said.
Drilling is a vitally important part of Curiosity's capabilities to study Mars.
Inside the rover are two laboratories that are able to conduct chemical and mineralogical analyses of rock and soil samples.
The samples are acquired from Gale Crater, which the rover has been exploring since 2012.
"We've been developing this new drilling technique for over a year, but our job isn't done once a sample has been collected on Mars," said JPL's Tom Green, a systems engineer who helped develop and test Curiosity's new drilling method.
"With each new test, we closely examine the data to look for improvements we can make and then head back to our test bed to iterate on the process."
There's also the next step to work on -- delivering the rock sample from the drill bit to the two laboratories inside the rover.
As soon as this Friday, the Curiosity team will test a new process for delivering samples into the rover's laboratories, NASA said.
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25 killed in lightning strikes, hailstorms in several districts of Bihar
Patna, Apr 10 (PTI): At least 25 people were killed in lightning strikes and hailstorms in several districts of Bihar on Thursday, officials said.
According to a statement issued by the Chief Minister's Office (CMO), Nalanda reported 18 deaths, followed by two in Siwan, one each in Katihar, Darbhanga, Begusarai, Bhagalpur and Jehanabad.
RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, however, claimed in a post on X that over 50 people died on Thursday.
“I am deeply saddened by the tragic deaths of more than 50 people in various incidents of storm, rain, lightning, tree and wall collapse in Bihar. I express my deepest condolences. May God provide strength to the families affected by the disaster in this hour of grief,” he wrote in Hindi.
He also said that the state government should compensate farmers for their crop loss due to the sudden rain and give them proper compensation.
Earlier, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar condoled the deaths and announced an ex gratia of Rs 4 lakh each for the next of kin of the deceased.
On Wednesday, 13 people had died in lightning strikes in four districts of Bihar.
The India Meteorological Department has issued an ‘orange alert’ (be prepared) for a number of districts, including Darbhanga, East Champaran, Gopalganj, West Champaran, Kishanganj, Araria, Supaul, Gaya, Sitamarhi, Sheohar, Nalanda, Nawada and Patna.
It has also forecast heavy rainfall on Friday and Saturday in these districts.
"Thunderstorms with lightning and gusty winds (40-50 kmph) likely to occur at few places over Madhubani, Darbhanga, East Champaran, Gopalganj, West Champaran, Kishanganj, Araria, Supaul, Gaya, Sitamarhi, Sheohar, Nalanda, Nawada, Patna," the IMD said in a bulletin.
Water-logging was also reported on Thursday from several parts of Patna following heavy rain.
The state capital recorded an average of 42.6 mm rainfall till 5.30 pm.
Officials of the Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) and district administration, however, claimed that rainwater was drained out in the shortest possible time despite the downpour.
