25th April 2014 Sol 611

Here is the chosen drill site – Windjana (named after a famous set of rocks in W. Australia which show ancient paintings).  It will be our first drilling since the one on Cumberland Mudstone around  Sol 292, though analyses went on for much longer as we did SAM analyses for instance, to see how the sample might change.  This rock is very different, it is coarser-grained and seems to have some large clasts sticking out in addition to fine sedimentary bedding.  The composition and mineralogy of Windjana could give us a wider perspective about how water altered the rocks in Gale Crater.

The drilling will probably go in stages, with a  test hole first, like we did at John Klein in sol 180.