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[Doug Klein] Since Curiosity
landed on Mars in 2012,

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it's used its drill
to acquire samples

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from Martian
rocks 15 times.

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But a little over a year ago
in December of 2016,

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Curiosity's drill started
giving it problems.

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The drill's feed mechanism,
which is responsible for

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moving Curiosity's drill bit
into and out of rocks,

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didn't move when commanded.

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When Curiosity drills into a
rock the way it was designed

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to, the drill's two stabilizer
posts touch the rock first to

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steady the arm while the
drill's feed mechanism moves

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the bit forward into the rock.

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Without the feed
mechanism working,

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we can't drill that way.

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To solve this problem, we do
what we always do.

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We worked it out in
the testbed using

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Curiosity's twin on Earth.

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Our team of engineers and
scientists have been working

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for months to figure out a way
to collect and deliver

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rock samples without using
the feed mechanism.

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Here's what we came up with.

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Using our new technique called
feed extended drilling,

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the stabilizers are not used.

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The bit is now in a
forward position

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extended past
the stabilizers.

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[Male on radio unintelligable]

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[Klein] Moving the drill
straight into a rock

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and retracting safely

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without the stabilizers
is challenging.

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We move the arm instead of the
feed mechanism to place the

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bit onto the rock and press it
forward as it drills.

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[Man on radio] [Unintelligble]
start hole's beginning, over.

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[Klein] After making contact,
we apply a light preload

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and drill a shallow
pilot hole.

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We use a force sensor
in the robotic arm

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to give Curiosity
a sense of touch.

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[drilling]

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This lets Curiosity adjust its
arm motion and avoid getting

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stuck while drilling; kind of
like you might adjust your arm

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while drilling into
a wall at home.

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[knocking]

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After drilling, we use
a similar technique

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to retract from the hole
without getting stuck.

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We recently tried this method
using Curiosity on Mars

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and here's how it turned out.

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This picture shows the first
hole drilled on Mars ever

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with this new
drilling technique.

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Even though we can't see the
hole in this image,

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we know we drilled about
one centimeter deep.

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The hole itself is buried
under the powder

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generated during drilling.

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This is a good sign for the
new drilling method.

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Next, we have to drill a
deeper hole to collect sample

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and demonstrate our new
techniques for delivering the

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sample to Curiosity's
two onboard labs.

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That will come in
the days ahead.

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[LOGO: NASA / Jet
Propulsion Laboratory