[meteorite-list] Third Drive of Curiosity's Long Trek Covers 135 Feet

[Ron Baalke]

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-219  

Third Drive of Curiosity's Long Trek Covers 135 Feet
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
July 11, 2013

PASADENA, Calif. - NASA's Mars rover Curiosity drove 135 feet (41
meters) on Tuesday, July 9, the third drive of a journey of many months
from the "Glenelg" area to Mount Sharp.

Last week, the mission finished investigating science targets in the
Glenelg area, about 500 yards (half a kilometer) east of where Curiosity
landed. The mission's next major destination is at the lower layers of
Mount Sharp, about 5 miles (8 kilometers) southwest of Glenelg. The July
9 drive brought Curiosity's odometry to about 325 feet (99 meters) since
completing the Glenelg investigations and about 0.51 mile (0.95
kilometer) since landing on Mars in August 2012.

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, where
Curiosity worked for the first half of 2013, the rover found evidence
for an ancient wet environment that had conditions favorable for
microbial life. This means the mission already has accomplished its main
science objective.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 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 .