Curiosity Update: Wrapping Up Rocknest

Here’s the latest video update from the MSL science team on Curiosity’s activities. It really just wraps up and recaps our article from earlier this week — that all of Curiosity’s science instruments are now fully up and running, that they found materials on Mars that have been seen by other missions, and they are still looking at some interesting carbon compounds. Also, Ashwin Vasavada reiterates what the science team said on Monday at the press conference: They’re doing science at the speed of science, and no one image or data point will cause us to re-write our science books.

Overhead map of Curiosity’s traverses. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

As for what the rover will do next, a couple team members Tweeted today that the rover’s wake up song today was “Should I Stay or Should I Go.” Curiosity is now finishing up at observations at an area called Point Lake; they’ll do some surveys of they another area called Yellowknife Bay, and in the next couple of weeks, do some drive-by imaging, perhaps use ChemCam, and the team said they would really like to find a target for the first use of Curiosity’s drill before the holidays start here on Earth.