The scientists controlling Curiosity, the Mars rover, announced on Sunday that it will no longer drill the rock dubbed as Bonanza King.
After a drill test conducted in Aug. 20, the rock showed movement, indicating that it is not as stable for safe drilling as what researchers previously thought.
Now, instead of searching for another rock to drill on the same area, the team decided that the Curiosity rover must carry on with its passage and explore the slopes of a nearby mountain. The rover will take the north-side route where a sandy valley is located.
Once Curiosity reaches its next destination, the team will choose a rock for drilling; the rock will be subjected to tests, including a mock drilling. The scientists are looking for a rock that is stable enough and won't have too much damage once the rover begins drilling.
Bonanza King is located towards the end of the Hidden Valley, where the rover drove last month and ended up slipping in the sand.
"We have decided that the rocks under consideration for drilling, based on the tests we did, are not good candidates for drilling," Curiosity Project Manager Jim Erickson of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in Pasadena, Calif., said in a statement. "Instead of drilling here, we will resume driving toward Mount Sharp."
To date, Curiosity has already travelled 5.5 miles since it landed on the Red Planet in August 2012. Since then, Curiosity has made a lot of breakthroughs, including finding evidence of microbial life in Mars' lakes and river system. Now, the Mars Science Laboratory Project is hoping to utilize Curiosity to study further these ancient environments as well as map out the changes that the Martian environment has gone through.
Curiosity will now make its way to Mount Sharp, where series of layers can be examined to see the different changes and the environmental evolution of the Red Planet.
