Curiosity Blog, Sols 4893-4899: Drilling at Campo Marte and a Visit From the Psyche Spacecraft

Written by Lucy Lim, planetary scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

Date of earthworks: Friday May 15, 2026

After freeing the rover arm from the “Atacama” block, we are ready to drill again! The new drilling target will represent the same geological stratum as Atacama, which is the layered sulfate unit above the box structures. We named the new block “Campo Marte” after a natural red sandstone feature in Bolivia, following the theme of choosing target names in this Martian quadrangle from locations near the Uyuni region of South America. The name can be literally translated from Spanish as “Field of Mars” or “Field of Mars”, appropriate for a target on Mars. In preparation for drilling, we measured the composition of Campo Marte with ChemCam LIBS and APXS as well as obtained close-up imaging with MAHLI. Additional LIBS rasters provided geochemical data on neighboring blocks, including some vein- and nodule-like features. As we have seen in several mobile stops in this unit, the “Paso Malo” block and several others are covered in a prominent polygonal texture.

We also photographed the Campo Marte block from several angles and determined that it is significantly thicker than the Atacama block. So we hope its greater mass will keep it grounded after drilling so we can remove the bit normally this time. The team obtained some interesting data on the volume and density of the Atacama block from our little adventure, but we don’t feel the need to repeat this particular experiment.

In the meantime, we had the opportunity to support another solar system exploration mission as the Psyche spacecraft flew past Mars to capture a gravitational pull en route to the main asteroid belt.

The Psyche spacecraft’s final destination is asteroid 16 Psyche, one of the largest members of an unusual spectral category of asteroids that has not yet been visited by a spacecraft. Although 16 Psyche is expected to be very different from Mars as a science target (for example, it is too small to maintain a Mars-like atmosphere), this flyby remains a valuable opportunity to test the spacecraft’s instruments and data analysis pipelines, and validate their calibration. For this reason, the Curiosity team planned an additional series of atmospheric observations timed to coordinate with the Psyche flyby: a zenith movie with Navcam to document clouds and a Mastcam solar observation to measure atmospheric opacity. The Mastcam was also supported by a new calibration data set. Along with other coordinated observations from Mars orbiters and the Perseverance rover, these are intended to contribute to the effort to validate the Psyche instrument.