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Curiosity drills for water on Mars

According to NASA, the Curiosity rover is now a "full operating analytical laboratory on Mars", having dug out a core sample in Gale Crater.

Nic Healey Senior Editor / Australia
Nic Healey is a Senior Editor with CNET, based in the Australia office. His passions include bourbon, video games and boring strangers with photos of his cat.
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Nic Healey

According to NASA, the Curiosity rover is now a "full operating analytical laboratory on Mars", having dug out a core sample in Gale Crater.

Curiosity's self-portrait. (Credit: NASA)

The beloved Curiosity rover has been on Mars for six months now, but don't think it's just been enjoying the view.

Curiosity recently completed drilling a 2.5-inch hole in the Gale Crater, a site chosen because geological markers have suggested that it might once have had water flowing over it.

The core sample will now be very carefully analysed over the next few days, with NASA working slowly to ensure that Earth-based materials aren't contaminating the rock.

Randomly and rather amusingly, Minecraft creator Markus "Notch" Persson took to Twitter to respond to Curiosity's tweet and reference the cult Manga and meme spawn The Enigma of Amigara Fault, saying, "this is my hole! It was made for me!"