Wild for sure, and now they have driven away with that empty tube… Hard to understand what’s going on

It was but a short time later it is missing from the tube when imaged again with the same camera, and it was also seen to be missing from the tube when it was imaged inside the rover at the sample measuring station by CacheCam a short time later.

It’s a probably a delay rather than a problem, as the images we have so far shows they did not cap / seal the empty tube. Empty tubes that have not been capped can be reused many times providing they are not damaged, and this one was apparently not damaged, they just lost the fractured core.

I guess we’ll see them try again to obtain a core at this same location, or move on to a less fractured piece of bedrock that may not break up so easily.

Watch this space :)

Looking at the CacheCam, it appears to be another short core.

We’ll have to wait for the official length when the update the sample page, but it looks fairly deep in the sample tube.

Then I best stick with my first pick from 2016 :)