NASA Rover Ready for Drive on Mars

VOA Breaking News
August 22, 2012 at 12:15 am (UTC-4)

The U.S. Mars rover Curiosity is set to go for its first drive.

NASA says it will tell the car-sized robotic vehicle to drive forward three meters on Wednesday, before turning around and driving back to the site where it landed earlier this month.

The U.S. space agency moved four of Curiosity's six wheels on Tuesday to test its steering ahead of the trek.

NASA also reported that one of the two wind sensors on the rover is not working and may have been damaged during the landing.

Curiosity is loaded with instruments to investigate the Martian geology, weather and radiation levels. It is on a two-year, $2.5 billion mission to help investigate whether life ever existed on Mars or could in the future.