A 29-pound Mars rock held NASA's Curiosity rover hostage for 6 days - Space

NASA's Curiosity rover was held up for six days when a roughly 29-pound rock lodged against its robotic arm and prevented normal operations before engineers freed it. The incident followed a recent drilling attempt and corroborates earlier accounts that the rover spent multiple days with a rock attached. The episode underscores how near-surface Martian rocks can behave unpredictably during sampling and will influence how scientists plan and interpret future sample-collection efforts.