spacetoday.net: Curiosity rover working well on Mars

Posted: Fri, Aug 10, 2012, 6:48 AM ET (1048 GMT)
MSL color thumbnail image of landscape and rover wheel (NASA/JPL)

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover is meeting or exceeding the expectations of scientists and engineers involved with the project several days after landing, returning stunning images and other data from its landing site. Project officials say the rover, which landed in Gale Crater on Mars Sunday night, is in good health. Instruments on the rover being checked out, including several of its 17 camera, also appear to be working well. Scientists have pinpointed the landing spot of the rover just a couple kilometers from the center of the landing ellipse that was the target for the mission. Curiosity has returned a number of images, including the first color images from the cameras mounted on top of its remote sensing mast. The first drive by the rover is not planned until late this month or early next month as the project team continues the checkout of Curiosity's instruments and updates its flight software.