Mars rover could start moving in a week

NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover, shown in this artist's rendering, touched down on the planet on August 6. Curiosity has been getting an upgrade of its control software over the past few days -- a process NASA dubbed a "brain transplant." Ashwin Vasavada, a Curiosity project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, told reporters that controllers "couldn't be happier with the success of the mission so far."
The rover's primary target is Mount Sharp, a peak about 8 kilometers (5 miles) away. But moving about a football field a day, with lengthy stops, it could take nearly a year to reach the slopes at the base of the mountain.
"Part of understanding Mount Sharp is understanding the context around it and some of the features that have formed on the plains where we're at," Vasavada said. Each stop to check out the features around the peak could involve "a few weeks of activity" at a time, he said.
The mountain is composed of layers of rock that have built up over time. Using its science tools, Curiosity will test for organic molecules, which would indicate the planet could have hosted life at one time.The Mars rover Curiosity could go for its first, short test drive in about a week, once scientists finish checking out its instruments, controllers said Tuesday.
The mobile science lab touched down on Mars early on August 6 and has been beaming back images of the surface of Gale Crater ever since. But it hasn't yet moved from its landing site as controllers make sure its systems operate properly.
Mission manager Michael Watkins said NASA hopes to change that by the rover's 15th full day on Mars, "assuming everything goes well in between now and then." Controllers plan to make sure Curiosity's steering gear works properly on 13, then take it out for a drive of "a couple meters, then maybe turn and back up," he said.
This image, with a portion of the rover in the corner, shows the wall of Gale Crater running across the horizon at the top of the image. The Mars rover Curiosity arrived on Mars early on August 6 and began beaming back images from the surface. See all the images as they are released here. 
This image, taken from the rover's mast camera, looks south of the landing site toward Mount Sharp.  
In this portion of the larger mosaic from the previous frame, the crater wall can be seen north of the landing site, or behind the rover. NASA says water erosion is believed to have created a network of valleys, which enter Gale Crater from the outside here. 
In this portion of the larger mosaic from the previous frame, the crater wall can be seen north of the landing site, or behind the rover. NASA says water erosion is believed to have created a network of valleys, which enter Gale Crater from the outside here. 
Two blast marks from the descent stage's rockets can be seen in the center of this image. Also seen is Curiosity's left side. This picture is a mosaic of images taken by the rover's navigation cameras. 
A partial view of a 360-degree color panorama of the Curiosity rover's landing site on Gale Crater. The panorama comes from low-resolution versions of images taken Thursday, August 9, with a 34-millimeter mast camera. Cameras mounted on Curiosity's remote sensing mast have beamed back fresh images of the site. 
A close-up view of an area at the NASA Curiosity landing site where the soil was blown away by the thrusters during the rover's descent on August 6. The excavation of the soil reveals probable bedrock outcrop, which shows the shallow depth of the soil in this area.  
This image comparison shows a view through a Hazard-Avoidance camera on NASA's Curiosity rover before and after the clear dust cover was removed. Both images were taken by a camera at the front of the rover. Mount Sharp, the mission's ultimate destination, looms ahead.  
The four main pieces of hardware that arrived on Mars with NASA's Curiosity rover were spotted by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera captured this image about 24 hours after landing.  
This view of the landscape to the north of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity was acquired by the Mars Hand Lens Imager on Monday afternoon on the first day after landing. 
 
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