Mars rover stuck in its own drill hole

Added: 2026-05-17

[00:00:00]The Curiosity rover just got its arm trapped by a Martian rock. But are we sure this isn't just one of those hand stuck in a cookie jar pranks? Except it's done by a rover on Mars. Curiosity was casually drilling into the Martian surface to collect a rock sample when it accidentally yanked a massive chunk of the rock out of the ground, but then the drill got lodged in the rock. Which kind of reminds me of those claw machines that refuse to let go of your toy. you can't exactly send a mechanic to Mars.

[00:00:29]And if engineers couldn't shake it loose, the entire multi-billion dollar mission was effectively stuck. So engineers spent days trying everything from shaking the drill, spinning the drill, tilting it to different angles.

[00:00:43]Basically, they tried everything except hitting it with a hammer. But after 5 days of troubleshooting from Earth, it finally worked. The rock broke free and fractured as it struck the ground. They should have played shake it