NASA on Tuesday released an update on its Mars Curiosity Rover mission, stating that the rover would attempt to find the first rock to drill into over Thanksgiving break on Thursday and Friday. As NASA’s Mars Curiosity Rover Twitter account tweeted:
Thanksgiving isn’t so different on Mars. I had a long drive & plan to take photos. No pie, though [info] go.nasa.gov/Udi9Ii
— Curiosity Rover (@MarsCuriosity) November 20, 2012
The rover has moved from its first science target, an area known as Rocknest, to its second, an area the science team back on Earth calls Point Lake. It’s here where NASA hopes to find the best rock to use the drill on. The $2.5 billion robotic laboratory landed on the Red Planet on August 6 and is on the third of a 23-month-long primary mission to search for signs that Mars ever could have had conditions capable of supporting life (habitability). So for it’s not attained definitive proof either way, though early signs indicate Mars lacks some key indicators, such as methane.
