No spacecraft has ever penetrated the rocky surface of Mars, or any planet for that matter, but that is about to change. In the past few weeks, Curiosity Rover has been stationed in a region called Yellowknife Bay, which features fractured ground with different temperature swings compared to other nearby terrain – and plenty of evidence of flowing water. The rover’s suite of instruments has been doing the initial reconnaissance, including several laser blasts with the ChemCam spectrometer. ChemCam has been seeing signs of possible gypsum, or other hydrated calcium sulfates. Some of the minerals found are sedimentary which means there was likely water in the fractures at some point in time. Drilling into them will provide more answers. Curiosity will spin its drill bit for the first time in about two weeks.