spacetoday.net: Curiosity reaches base of Mount Sharp

Posted: Fri, Sep 12, 2014, 7:13 AM ET (1113 GMT)
Curiosity self portrait, June 2014 (NASA)

NASA announced Thursday that the Mars rover Curiosity has arrived at the base of a Martian mountain that it will soon start to climb. The rover is at an entry point to the lower slopes of a mountain officially known as Aeolis Mons, but widely referred to as Mount Sharp, in the center of Gale Crater. Curiosity will take a different, and more direct. route up the lower slopes of the mountain that previously planned because of more promising geological features expected on the new route. Ascending Mount Sharp has long been a goal of Curiosity, which landed in the floor of Gale Crater in August 2012. NASA also defended the scientific plan for the mission after a recent senior review of ongoing planetary missions criticized the mission's plans for the next two years.