Drill Bit Tip on Mars Rover Curiosity, Head-on View

This head-on view shows the tip of the drill bit on NASA's Mars rover Curiosity. The view merges two exposures taken by the remote micro-imager in the rover's Chemistry and Camera instrument at different focus settings during the 172nd Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity's work on Mars (Jan. 29, 2012). The merged product shows more of the hardware in focus than would be seen in a single exposure.

The scale bar at lower right is 2.3 millimeters (0.09 inch).

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL/CNES/IRAP/LPGNantes/CNRS