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Mars Rover Curiosity Stuck for Days When a 29 Pound Rock Trapped Its Drill
Science
Published on 8 May 2026
Its drill couldn’t move because the rock clung
NASA’s Curiosity rover hit a rare “hostage” scenario on Mars when a massive rock called Atacama became stuck to its drill arm. The sampling mission effectively paused for nearly a week after the drill couldn’t retract or reposition, forcing controllers to wait out the complication before resuming operations.
- A Martian rock named Atacama trapped Curiosity’s drill arm
- Operations were paused for nearly six days
- The drill became unable to move or retract normally
- NASA teams monitored the situation before restarting sampling
Read the full story at Republic
This summarization was done by Beige for a story published on 
Republic