NASA said the Curiosity rover is preparing to drill at a site informally named “Nazca,” returning to a spot a few meters from the earlier “Chiu Chiu” block after its Basque Lakes drill campaign. The mission team judged the neighboring block beyond “Chiu Chiu” to be a better drill candidate and approved preparations at “Nazca,” according to a mission update written by Lucy Lim of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.
The target shows abundant disc- and needle-shaped crystal forms. The team is testing the idea that these shapes formed during crystal growth. Their relatively large sizes at “Nazca” and “Chiu Chiu” offer clues about temperature and the availability of salts and fluids when they formed, the update said. The team also noted that later mineral replacement can produce “pseudomorphs,” which preserve shape but change composition.
Curiosity planned detailed surface characterization before a drill preload test. The rover’s Mars Hand Lens Imager, which sits on the robotic arm and combines multiple focus positions into sharp composites, will take a five-frame Quantitative Relief Model sequence to build a higher-resolution three-dimensional relief of the textures. MAHLI will also increase its finest imaging detail by doubling the number of focus steps, further improving the 3D models of the crystal forms.
The rover’s laser instrument will run a “depth profile” experiment on a nearby crystal-form-rich target named “Toucan.” Instead of spreading 150 laser shots across a five-point raster at 30 shots per point, the team will fire all 150 shots at one spot. Each shot vaporizes a small amount of rock to make a plasma, so concentrating the shots should probe roughly five times deeper than a standard 30-shot point. The goal is to compare the composition beneath the surface with the surface itself and assess whether modern exposure or original formation conditions changed what is seen at the exterior.
Additional compositional work is planned on the “Nazca” spot before the preload test to characterize its surface as thoroughly as possible before drilling, according to the update. A third laser observation will examine “Condor,” a nearby block with a finely layered texture.
Curiosity also continued monitoring the modern Martian environment as twilight cloud season begins. The plan includes nighttime imaging of Phobos, the larger and brighter of Mars’ two moons. When Phobos is full, sunlight reflects off the moon and scatters in the Martian atmosphere, which helps estimate particle sizes in clouds. The team expects these measurements to sample high-altitude carbon dioxide clouds. The update said Phobos observations allow similar measurements later in the night than solar observations can provide.
The update included a close-up MAHLI image of “Nazca” acquired Oct. 18, 2026, during Sol 5048 of the mission, showing the abundance of roughly disc-shaped potential crystal forms and brush scratches from surface cleaning.