An area of windblown sand and dust downhill from a cluster of dark rocks has been selected as the likely location for the first use of the scoop on the arm of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity. Curiosity arrived on Mars on August 6 and began beaming back images from the surface. See all the images here as they are released. Check out images from previous Mars missions. Curiosity cut a wheel scuff mark into a wind-formed ripple at the "Rocknest" site on Wednesday, October 3, to give researchers a better opportunity to examine the particle-size distribution of the material forming the ripple. NASA's Curiosity rover found evidence for what scientists believe was an ancient, flowing stream on Mars at a few sites, including the rock outcrop pictured here. The key evidence for the ancient stream comes from the size and rounded shape of the gravel in and around the bedroc k, according to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory/Caltech science team. The rounded shape leads the science team to conclude they were transported by a vigorous flow of water. The grains are too large to have been moved by wind. This photos shows an up-close look at an outcrop that also shows evidence of flowing water, according to the JPL/Caltech science team. The outcrop's characteristics are consistent with rock that was formed by the deposition of water and is composed of many smaller rounded rocks cemented together. Water transport is the only process capable of producing the rounded shape of conglomerate rock of this size. Curiosity completed its longest drive to date on September 26. The rover moved about 160 feet east toward the area known as "Glenelg." The rover has now moved about a quarter-mile from its landing site. This image shows the robotic arm of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity with the first rock touched by an instrument on the arm. The photo was taken by the rover's right navigation camera. This image combines photographs taken by the rover's Mars Hand Lens Imager at three distances from the first Martian rock that NASA's Curiosity rover touched with its arm. The images reveal that the target rock has a relatively smooth, gray surface with some glinty facets reflecting sunlight and reddish dust collecting in recesses in the rock. This rock will be the first target for Curiosity's contact instruments. Located on a turret at the end of the rover's arm, the contact instruments include the Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer for reading a target's elemental composition and the Mars Hand Lens Imager for close-up imaging. Researchers used the Curiosity rover's mast camera, on September 7, to take a photo of the Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer. The image was used to see if it had been caked in dust during the landing. Researchers also used the mast camera to examine the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) on the rover to inspect its dust cover and check that its LED lights were fucntional. In this image, taken on September 7, the MAHLI is in the center of the screen with its LED on. The main purpose of Curiosity's MAHLI camera is to acquire close-up, high-resolution views of rocks and soil from the Marti an surface. This is the open inlet where powdered rock and soil samples will be funneled down for analysis. The image is made up of eight photos taken on September 11, by MAHLI and is used to check that the instrument is operating correctly. This is the calibration target for the MAHLI. This image, taken on September 9, shows that the surface of the calibration target is covered with a layor of dust as a result of the landing. The calibration target includes color references, a metric bar graphic, a penny for scale comparison, and a stair-step pattern for depth calibration. This view of the three left wheels of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity combines two images that were taken by the rover's Mars Hand Lens Imager on Sunday, September 9, the 34th Martian day of Curiosity's work on Mars. In the distance is the lower slope of Mount Sharp. This view of the lower front and underbelly areas of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity was taken by the rover's Mars Hand Lens Imager on Sunday. Also visible are the hazard avoidance cameras on the front of the rover. The penny in this image is part of a camera calibration target on NASA's Mars rover Curiosity. The image was taken by the Mars Hand Lens Imager camera on Sunday. The reclosable dust cover on Curiosity's Mars Hand Lens Imager was opened for the first time on Saturday, September 8, enabling MAHLI to take this image. Curiosity rover used a camera located on its arm to obtain this self-portrait on Friday, September 7. The image of the top of Curiosity's Remote Sensing Mast, showing the Mastcam and Chemcam cameras, was taken by the Mars Hand Lens Imager. The angle of the frame reflects the position of the MAHLI camera on the arm when the image was taken. The image was acquired while MAHLI's c lear dust cover was closed. The left eye of the Mast Camera on NASA's Mars rover Curiosity took this image of the rover's arm on Wednesday, September 5. Sub-image one of three shows the rover and its tracks after a few short drives. Tracking the tracks will provide information on how the surface changes as dust is deposited and eroded. Sub-image two shows the parachute and backshell, now in color. The outer band of the parachute has a reddish color. Sub-image three shows the descent stage crash site, now in color, and several distant spots (blue in enhanced color) downrange that are probably the result of distant secondary impacts that disturbed the surface dust. An image released Monday, August 27, was taken with Curiosity rover's 100-millimeter mast camera, NASA says. The image shows Mount Sharp on the Martian surface. NASA says the rover will go to this area. The Mars rover Curiosity moved about 15 feet forward and then reversed about 8 feet during its first test drive on Wednesday, August 22. The rover's tracks can be seen in the right portion of this panorama taken by the rover's navigation camera. NASA tested the steering on its Mars rover Curiosity on Tuesday, August 21. Drivers wiggled the wheels in place at the landing site on Mars. Curiosity moved its robot arm on Monday, August 20, for the first time since it landed on Mars. "It worked just as we planned," said JPL engineer Louise Jandura in a NASA press release. This picture shows the 7-foot-long (2.1-meter-long) arm holding a camera, a drill, a spectrometer, a scoop and other tools. The arm will undergo weeks of tests before it starts digging. With the addition of four high-resolution Navigation Camera, or Navcam, images, taken on August 18, Curiosity's 360-degree landing-site panorama now includes the highest point on Mount Sharp visible from the rover. Mount Sharp's peak is obscured from the rover's landing site by this highest visible point. This composite image, with magnified insets, depicts the first laser test by the Chemistry and Camera, or ChemCam, instrument aboard NASA's Curiosity Mars rover. The composite incorporates a Navigation Camera image taken prior to the test, with insets taken by the came ra in ChemCam. The circular insert highlights the rock before the laser test. The square inset is further magnified and processed to show the difference between images taken before and after the laser interrogation of the rock. An updated self-portrait of the Mars rover Curiosity, showing more of the rover's deck. This image is a mosiac compiled from images taken from the navigation camera. The wall of Gale Crater, the rover's landing site, can be seen at the top of the image. This image shows what will be the rover's first target with it's chemistry and camera (ChemCam) instrument. The ChemCam will fire a laser at the rock, indicated by the black circle. The laser will cause the rock to emit plasma, a glowing, ionized gas. The rover will then analyze the plasma to determine the chemical composition of the rock. This is a close-up of the rock that will be the ChemCam's first target. This image, cropped from a larger panorama, shows an area, near the rover's rear left wheel, where the surface material was blown away by the descent-stage rockets. 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. This image, taken from the rover's mast camera, looks south of the landing site toward Mount Sharp. This partial mosaic from the Curiosity rover shows Mars' environment around the rover's landing site on Gale Crater. NASA says the pictured landscape resembles portions of the U.S. Southwest. The high-resolution mosaic includes 130 images, but not all the ima ges have been returned by the rover to Earth. The blackened areas of the mosaic are the parts that haven't been transmitted yet. See more on this panaroma on NASA's site. 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 color image from NASA's Curiosity rover shows the pebble-covered surface of Mars. This panorama mosaic was made of 130 images of 144 by 144 pixels each. Selected full frames from this panorama, which are 1,200 by 1,200 pixels each, are expected to be transmitted to Earth later. A panoramic photograph shows the Curiosity rover's surroundings at its landing site inside Gale Crater. The rim of Gale Crater can be seen to the left, and the base of Mount Sharp is to the center-right. 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. NASA's Curiosity rover took this self-portrait using a camera on its newly deployed mast. 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 color full-resolution image showing the heat shield of NASA's Curiosity rover was obtained during descent to the surface of Mars on Monday, August 13. The image was obtained by the Mars Descent Imager instrument known as MARDI and shows the 15-foot diameter heat shield when it was about 50 feet from the spacecraft. This first image taken by the Navigation cameras on Curiosity shows the rover's shadow on the surface of Mars. The color image captured by NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on Tuesday, August 7, has been rendered about 10% transparent so that scientists can see how it matches the simulated terrain in the background. 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 image is a 3-D view in front of NASA's Curiosity rover. The anaglyph was made from a stereo pair of Hazard-Avoidance Cameras on the front of the rover. Mount Sharp, a peak that is about 3.4 miles high, is visible rising above the terrain, though in one "eye" a box on the rover holding the drill bits obscures the view. 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. 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, the first day after landing. This is one of the first pictures taken by Curiosity after it landed. It shows the rover's shadow on the Martian soil. Another of the first images taken by the rover. The clear dust cover that protected the camera during landing has popped open. Part of the spring that released the dust cover can be seen at the bottom right, near the rover's wheel. This image shows Curiosity's main science target, Mount Sharp. The rover's shadow can be seen in the foreground. The dark bands in the distances are dunes. Another of the first images beamed back from NASA's Curiosity rover on August 6 is the shadow cast by the rover on the surface of Mars. NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover, shown in this artist's rendering, touched down on the planet on August 6.
(CNN) -- The Mars rover Curiosity will get to try out its scoop this weekend, according to current NASA plans. "The request that the engineers made to the scientists was: Find us a good sandbox, a good sand pit, to play in here, on our way to Glenelg," said Mike Watkins, Curiosity mission manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, at a press conference Thursday. "This site, Rocknest, is exactly that." The vehicle is currently parked 400 meters as the crow flies from Bradbury Landing, where it landed on August 6. It will likely stay there for another two weeks, with scooping to begin on Saturday. Curiosity rotated its wheel around the sandy material where it is to make sure that it was loose, dry soil, Watkins said. The rover will use its instruments to further determine what this sand is made of, to make sure it meets the scientists' needs. The sand also serves as a sort of "mouthwash" for Curiosity to finish cleaning out its hardware, NASA experts said. There are five tools at the end of the rover's robotic arm. The Collection and Handling for Interior Martian Rock Analysis mechanism does scooping, processing and sample drop-off. What we've done on Mars, and what's next Although the hardware was clean when it was assembled at NASA facilities, it's impossible to avoid an oily film that accumulates as a result of being on Earth, said Daniel Limonadi, a sampling expert at JPL. The sample analysis instrument on Curiosity is so sensitive that it needs this film scrubbed away. The handling of sand sample will be used as a way to accomplish this, Limonadi said. Effectively, the rover will vibrate the sand on sensitive hardware surfaces to sand-blast them, then spit the material out and repeat three times. Scientists were looking for a "boring" and "safe" Martian sand dune for this purpose to make sure that it wouldn't do something weird such as turn to paste or absorb water, Limonadi said. The rover will be performing an X-ray diffraction experiment, using a device called ChemMin, to help detect the minerals present in the sample. This technique has never been done before on Mars, said Ashwin Vasavada, deputy project scientist for the rover mission. "Even the most boring sand on Mars is going to be a new result in that respect." Mission specialists say the rover will probably end up at Glenelg around the rover's 90th Martian day, and then Curiosity will pause to try out its drilling system. There will be a similar cleaning activity for the drill. Days on Mars are about 40 minutes longer than on Earth, and the people working on the mission are still living on "Mars time." In its first two months on Mars, Curiosity stumbled upon an area where it appears that water once flowed in a vigorous stream. Scientists say the rover spotted rock outcrops that seem to have formed in the presence of water, with rounded gravels that may have been transported by water. But the rover did not linger at these sites. Instead, drivers proceeded to command Curiosity to continue moving toward Glenelg, a site of scientific interest because it contains three types of terrain, including layered bedrock. "We think there's even better versions of that same material at Glenelg, at least that's the hypothesis," Vasavada said. If that doesn't pan out, Curiosity can visit some of the outcrops it's already passed on the way back. After Glenelg, Curiosity is bound for a 3-mile-high mountain called Mount Sharp, composed of layers of sediment that have built up over time. These layers may hold organic molecules, indicating that at one time life could have subsisted. Also this week, Curiosity checked in on Mars using the mobile application Foursquare. While no human will be overthrowing the rover's check-in supremacy anytime soon, users of Foursquare can score a Curiosity-themed badge when checking in at certain science-y locations. This program will go into effect later this year. Read more about the Mars rover on CNN's Light Years blog |