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This pair of images from the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) on NASA's Mars rover Curiosity shows the rock target "Cumberland" before and after Curiosity drilled into it to collect a sample for analysis

The "before" image was taken during the 275th Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity's work on Mars (May 15, 2013).

Curiosity drilled into Cumberland on Sol 279 (May 19, 2013) and took the second image later that same sol.

The NASA Mars rover Curiosity drove 63 feet (19 meters) northeastward early Monday, Dec. 10, approaching a step down into a slightly lower area called "Yellowknife Bay," where researchers intend to choose a rock to drill.

Curiosity ended Monday's drive about 30 percent shorter than planned for the day when it detected a slight difference between two calculations of its tilt, not an immediate risk, but a trigger for software to halt the drive as a precaution

Curiosity is approaching a lip where it will descend about 20 inches (half a meter) to Yellowknife Bay. The rover team is checking carefully for a safe way down. Yellowknife Bay is the temporary destination for first use of Curiosity's rock-powdering drill, before the mission turns southwestward for driving to its main destination on the slope of Mount Sharp.

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover targeted the laser of the Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument with remarkable accuracy for assessing the composition of the wall of a drilled hole and tailings that resulted from the drilling

ChemCam fired its laser 150 times (5 bursts of 30 shots, each burst at a different target point) on the drill tailings between the two holes and 300 times (10 bursts of 30 shots) in the drill hole itself

The same day, ChemCam's remote micro-imager (RMI) captured images of the laser pits: small craters in the loose tailing

Curiosity drove about 3.5 meters to reach the John Klein outcrop that the team chose as the 1st drilling site. The car sized rover is investigating a shallow depression known as ‘Yellowknife Bay’

widespread evidence for repeated episodes of the ancient flow of liquid water near her landing site inside Gale Crater on Mars.

examining ancient rocks that have not been exposed to the Martian surface environment, and weathering, and preserve the environment in which they formed

This is a key point because subsequent oxidation reactions can destroy organic molecules and thereby potential signs of habitability and life.

The tailings are gray. All things being equal it’s better to have a gray color than red because oxidation is something that can destroy organic compounds

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity drilled 2.5 inches (6.4 centimeters) into a Red Planet outcrop called "John Klein" earlier this month, revealing rock that's decidedly gray rather than the familiar rusty orange of the Martian surface

results of the first analysis of Martian soil by the Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin) experiment on NASA's Curiosity rover

presence of crystalline feldspar, pyroxenes and olivine mixed with some amorphous (non-crystalline) material

similar to volcanic soils in Hawaii

MarsClock, available for Android devices at Google play is a free app written by Scott Maxwell, rover driver for Curiosity.

lets you see times for all three of NASA’s Mars Rovers, Spirit, Opportunity and Curiosity

allows the user to set single alarms or alarms that repeat every sol

lower elevation, shown in purple is the target landing area

scientists and engineers want to get the rover as close as they can to the big mountain, Mount Sharp

5.5 km above the crater floor

HiRISE Principal Investigator Alfred McEwen said before the landing that they expected only a 60% chance of success

MRO was 340 km away from Curiosity when the image was taken, and that is line of sight distance, said Malkovich. “HiRISE has taken over 120 pictures of Gale Crater in preparation for MSL’s mission, but I think this is the coolest one,” she said.

more details and image products will be available and we will post them as soon as they are available

The image scale is 13.2 inches (33.6 centimeters) per pixel

The parachute appears fully inflated and performing perfectly. Details in the parachute, such as the band gap at the edges and the central hole, are clearly seen. The cords connecting the parachute to the back shell cannot be seen, although they were seen in the image of NASA's Phoenix lander descending, perhaps due to the difference in lighting angles. The bright spot on the back shell containing Curiosity might be a specular reflection off of a shiny area. Curiosity was released from the back shell sometime after this image was acquired.

The 500,000 lines of computer code went off without a glitch. The 76 onboard explosive devices popped off in sequence to the microsecond, throwing valves and cutting loose tether lines. So Curiosity rover's 7 minutes of terror had the happiest of endings. At 1:37 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time, word came down: "Touchdown confirmed. We're safe on Mars.

Phobos does not completely cover the sun as seen from the Red Planet's surface, so the Aug. 17 event was an annular or "ring of fire" eclipse

Phobos is just 14 miles (22 kilometers) wide on average

Phobos appears

Earth shines

in the Martian twilight sky

“A human observer with normal vision, if standing on Mars, could easily see Earth and the moon as two distinct, bright “evening stars,” said NASA