Mars Rover Drills Into Planet for First Time

NASA's Mars rover has busted out a new tool to pry into the planet's secrets. Curiosity used a drill at the top of one of its arms to make a small hole in Martian rock, reports LiveScience. It was just a test, the first of its kind, but it seemed to go perfectly. NASA scientists need to make sure that Curiosity can pick up and evaluate the drill cuttings, and then it's on to "the first full drilling in coming days," says the agency. The drill site was selected because it could yield clues about whether water once flowed there. (More Curiosity stories.)