Curiosity Blog, Sols 4716-4722: Drilling Success at Nevado Sajama
NASA’s Curiosity rover has recently achieved a significant milestone by successfully drilling into the “Nevado Sajama” target on Mars, marking Sol 4718 (November 13, 2025) of its ongoing mission. Positioned on a ridge among intricate geological formations known as boxwork units, Curiosity’s drilling operation was carefully planned based on extensive data collected from its analytical instruments, including the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS), ChemCam, and the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI). Prior to the drilling, these instruments provided critical insights into the chemical composition and structural integrity of the target area, confirming it was suitable for sampling. The presence of fine veins observed in both Nevado Sajama and a nearby target, “Tesoro del Pangal,” suggests complex geological processes at play, potentially related to the fluids that have influenced the erosion resistance of the boxwork ridges.
In addition to the drilling activities, Curiosity continued to gather vital environmental data, contributing to a comprehensive dataset that has been built over the past 13 years. The Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS) and Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD) recorded Martian weather conditions, while the Mastcam and Navigation Camera (Navcam) monitored atmospheric dust and cloud formations. The analysis of the drilled material will soon commence with the Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin) instrument, which will help scientists compare the mineralogy of Nevado Sajama with that of the adjacent “Valle de la Luna.” This comparative analysis is anticipated to yield new insights into the geological history and formation of the boxwork unit, enhancing our understanding of Mars’ complex environment and its potential for past habitability. As Curiosity continues to explore and analyze the Martian landscape, the mission remains a cornerstone of our quest to unravel the mysteries of the Red Planet.
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Curiosity Blog, Sols 4716-4722: Drilling Success at Nevado Sajama
NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image of the “Nevado Sajama” drill hole, using its Left Navigation Camera on Nov. 13, 2025 — Sol 4718, or Martian day 4,718 of the Mars Science Laboratory mission — at 19:46:43 UTC.
NASA/JPL-Caltech
Written by Michelle Minitti, MAHLI Deputy Principal Investigator at Framework
Earth planning date: Friday, Nov. 14, 2025
From Curiosity’s ridge-top perch among the boxwork unit, the highlight of the week was the successful drilling of the “Nevado Sajama” target. The data collected by APXS, ChemCam, and MAHLI from the rover workspace and its immediate vicinity gave the team confidence to proceed with sampling. APXS and ChemCam data from two targets cleared by the DRT — Nevado Sajama (before it was drilled) and “Tesoro del Pangal” — demonstrated that the chemistry of the workspace was in family with the many ridge-top targets analyzed during the boxwork unit campaign. MAHLI imaging revealed the presence of fine veins in both targets, and also confirmed the structural soundness of the drill target after the rover engineers tested the strength of Nevado Sajama by pressing down on it with the drill tip. The types of veins observed by MAHLI were investigated by ChemCam on broken bedrock faces that exposed both bright white and gray materials. These targets, “Arenas Blancas,” “Camarones,” and “Exaltación,” will provide more insight into the fluids that penetrated the boxwork ridges, perhaps contributing to their erosion resistance. DAN collected data for long stretches across the sols over which all these activities occurred, gaining data on the hydrogen (and by extrapolation, water) content of the ridge. Mastcam began and will continue to build a large mosaic of our location which will include both Nevado Sajama and the drill target “Valle de la Luna” within an adjacent hollow.
The rover payload was not only focused on studying the ridge and drill target, but also added to the systematic environmental dataset Curiosity has built over the last 13 years. REMS and RAD regularly recorded Martian and space weather, respectively, throughout the week. Mastcam and Navcam measured dust loading in the atmosphere, and looked for clouds and dust devils while ChemCam and APXS took turns measuring different chemical components in the atmosphere.
The drill activity itself completed on Sol 4718. This weekend, the first portions of the drilled material will be delivered to and analyzed by CheMin. The whole team is anxiously awaiting the CheMin results in order to compare them to the Valle de la Luna mineralogy derived from the hollow below us. We hope their comparison will provide us with new insights into how the boxwork unit came to be.
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NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity at the base of Mount Sharp
NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
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Last Updated
Nov 18, 2025
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