[meteorite-list] Curiosity Mars Rover Passes Kilometer of Driving

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed, 17 Jul 2013 14:54:18 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <201307172154.r6HLsIRs016434_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-222

Curiosity Mars Rover Passes Kilometer of Driving
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
July 17, 2013

PASADENA, Calif. - The latest drive by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover
brought the total distance that the rover has driven on Mars to more
than 1 kilometer. One kilometer is about 0.62 mile.

The drive covered about 38 meters (125 feet) and brought the mission's
odometry to about 1.029 kilometers (3,376 feet). The drive was completed
in the early afternoon of the rover's 335th Martian day, or sol, of work
on Mars (July 17). It continued progress in a multi-month trek begun
this month toward a mountain destination.

"When I saw that the drive had gone well and passed the kilometer mark,
I was really pleased and proud," said rover driver Frank Hartman of
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "Hopefully, this is
just the first of many kilometers to come."

Yesterday was is halfway through the mission's prime mission of one
Martian year. Two weeks ago, Curiosity finished investigating science
targets in the Glenelg area, about half a kilometer (500 yards) east of
where the one-ton rover landed on Aug. 5, 2012, PDT (Aug. 6, Universal
Time). The mission's next major destination is at the lower layers of
Mount Sharp, about 8 kilometers (5 miles) southwest of Glenelg.

Mount Sharp, in the middle of Gale Crater, exposes many layers where
scientists anticipate finding evidence about how the ancient Martian
environment changed and evolved. At targets in the Glenelg area, the
rover already accomplished the mission's main science objective by
finding evidence for an ancient wet environment that had conditions
favorable for microbial life.

JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena,
manages the Mars Science Laboratory Project for NASA's Science Mission
Directorate, Washington. JPL designed and built the project's Curiosity
rover.

More information about Curiosity is online at
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/msl , http://www.nasa.gov/msl and
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/ . You can follow the mission on Facebook
at http://www.facebook.com/marscuriosity and on Twitter at
http://www.twitter.com/marscuriosity .

Guy Webster 818-354-6278
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
guy.webster at jpl.nasa.gov

2012-222
Received on Wed 17 Jul 2013 05:54:18 PM PDT