- News

The US space agency's (Nasa) Curiosity rover has begun to roll.

The Mars robot, which landed on the Red Planet two weeks ago, turned its six wheels briefly on Wednesday to satisfy engineers that its locomotion system was in full working order.

It has been built to drive at least 20km across the Martian landscape to investigate whether the planet ever had the conditions necessary for life.

Wednesday's drive saw the rover roll forward 4.5m, turn clockwise on the spot for about 120 degrees, and then reverse up 2.5m. It took about five minutes to complete the manoeuvre. Another 10 minutes or so was spent taking pictures of the outcome, recording the vehicle's historic first tracks in the Martian soil.

The rover is now pointing southwest in the general direction of Mount Sharp, the big mountain at the centre of Mars' equatorial Gale Crater. Scientists expect to find rocks at the base of the peak that were laid down billions of years ago in the presence of abundant water.

Curiosity - also known as the Mars Science Laboratory, MSL - will not journey to Mount Sharp immediately, however. The mission team first wants to visit a piece of ground some 400m to the east, a location the researchers have dubbed Glenelg. Satellite pictures have shown this place to be an intersection of three distinct types of rock terrain. Scientists think it will be a good place to start to characterise the geology of Gale Crater.

The rover will probably set off for Glenelg in about a week, following some science investigations of Bradbury Landing itself and a number of additional practice drives. On its way to the intersection, Curiosity will likely scoop a soil sample to examine in its onboard laboratories.

Want To Live On Mars Time? There’s An App For That

Mars Clock is an app that displays accurate local Mars time at the Curiosity landing site. Sunrise and sunset times are also displayed so that daylight hours, when the Rover is most active, can be determined.
Find out more.

Exploring Mars: Landers

These images, from NASA, show previous crafts that have been used in the surface exploration of Mars. They illustrate space exploration including the Mars Viking lander which looked for signs of life on Mars.
Find our more.


Image credit: NASA/JPL-CALTECH