Mars Rover: Explore the Red Planet with Nasa's robot
Scientists are poring over results from the first series of soil tests performed by the Curiosity rover on Mars. The robot is the most sophisticated rover the US space agency has sent to the Red Planet.
The six-wheeled vehicle is 2.9m (9.5ft) long and stands as high as an average man. It can roam around the surface and roll over obstacles up to 75cm (29in) high.
Packed with scientific equipment, the rover has started scooping up soil and drilling into rocks. A robotic arm delivers samples to on-board labs to analyse their chemical make-up. Curiosity's mission is to try to establish if Mars has ever had, or still has, the environmental conditions to support simple lifeforms.
The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), as it is also known, was launched into space in November 2011. Its destination was a 154km (96 mile)-wide equatorial depression gouged out of the ground by an impacting meteorite billions of years ago.
Gale Crater was chosen after a rigorous investigation of some 60 competing sites. The selection process took five years and involved about 150 researchers. Gale has many signs that water was present in its past. It has a variety of clays and other water-related minerals present that Curiosity can study.
At 900kg (2,000lb), Curiosity is the heaviest rover vehicle ever sent to the surface of Mars. Nasa engineers had to devise a daring new system to get the robot to the surface intact.
Curiosity first fell through the Martian atmosphere encased in a protective shell. It then deployed a parachute to further slow its descent. Finally, Curiosity dropped away from its protective shell and travelled down to the planet on a rocket-powered sky crane. This gently deposited the rover onto the surface, wheels down, on 6 August 2012 (GMT)
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