Snapshot of Stories

Nasa’s Curiosity Mars rover has finally drilled deep enough into a rock to acquire a powdered sample for analysis.  The fine grey tailings from the 6cm-hole will be sieved and inspected before being delivered to the robot’s onboard labs in the coming days.  It will represent a historic first in planetary exploration – never before has the interior of a rock on another world been probed in such a way.  The US space agency said the drilling was an immense achievement.  “This is the biggest milestone accomplishment for the Curiosity team since the sky-crane landing last August, another proud day for America,” said Prof John Grotizinger, the mission’s chief scientist.  Drilling is absolutely central to the rover’s mission in Gale Crater, a deep bowl sited on Mars’ equator.  Curiosity is investigating whether past environments at this location could ever have supported life, and getting inside rocks to analyse their make-up will provide some of the most telling evidence.  Engineers have waited a full six months before deploying the drill tool, which is held on the end of the rover’s 2.2m-long robotic arm.  Its first action was just to hammer down briefly on a rock target last weekend – a simple check to prove the machinery was behaving as it should.  This was followed in the week by the drill turning in the chosen rock to cut a shallow, 2cm hole.  It produced a fine powder that engineers deemed suitable to try to pick up. So, the command was given to drill a second hole that was deep enough to push some tailings into the tool’s sample acquisition chamber.  Some of this material will be used to scrub the machinery’s innards of any contamination that may have travelled with the rover from Earth.

Songs Played

Calvin Harris feat Tinie Tempah – Drinking From The Bottle
Noisettes – Don’t Upset The Rythm
Daniel Bedingfield – Wrap My Words Around You
Deacon Blue – That’s What We Can Do
Vaccines – Teenage Icon
Bon Jovi – Because We Can
Steps – Tragedy
Ben Folds Five – Do It Anyway
Dolly Parton – Jolene
Mika – We Are Golden
Jellyfish – I Wana Stay Home
Maroon 5 – One More Night
Kaiser Chiefs – The Angry Mob
Relient K – Pink Tux To The Prom
Foals – My Number
Meat Loaf – You Took The Words Right Out Of My Mouth
KT Tunstall – Suddenly I See

80s Hour

Soft Cell – Tainted Love
Eddie Murphy – Party All The Time
Starship – Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now
Donald Byrd – Love Has Come Around
Foreigner – I Want To Know What Love Is
Cutting Crew – I Just Died In Your Arms Tonight
Bryan Adams – Summer Of ’69
Kim Wilde – You Keep Me Hangin’ On
Kiss – Crazy, Crazy Nights