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also has additional color calibration tools for the rover’s Mastcam

; in addition to the words “Mars 2012″ and “To Mars, To Explore” around its top bezel,

along its edge

Along with line drawings and the word for “Mars” in sixteen languages, Curiosity’s sundial bears the following inscription

“For millennia, Mars has stimulated our imaginations. First, we saw Mars as a wandering star, a bringer of war from the abode of the gods. In recent centuries, the planet’s changing appearance in telescopes caused us to think that Mars had a climate like the Earth’s. Our first space age views revealed only a cratered, Moon-like world, but later missions showed that Mars once had abundant liquid water. Through it all, we have wondered: Has there been life on Mars? To those taking the next steps to find out, we wish a safe journey and the joy of discovery.”

The semicircle is divided into twelve sections of about 15 degrees each.

A dent in the middle of the approximately 16 centimeter long horizontal baseline served to insert a wooden or metal bolt that would cast a shadow to show the hours of the day

Small dots in the middle of each section were used for even more detailed time measuring

found in an area of stone huts that were used in the 13th century BC to house the men working at the construction of the graves

possibly used to measure their work hours

the division of the sun path into hours also played a crucial role in the so-called netherworld guides that were drawn onto the walls of the royal tombs

These guides are illustrated texts that chronologically describe the nightly progression of the sun-god through the underworld.

the sun dial could also have served to further visualize this phenomenon.