People could definitely learn a thing or two about moving on from the Curiosity Rover.
Since 2013, the Curiosity Rover has been making its way towards Mount Sharp, a mountain in the Gale Crater that stretches over three miles into the sky. So far, the rover has managed to travel 5.5 miles already. It just has around two miles more to go before reaching its destination close to Mount Sharp's base, which mission officials said should be accomplished at the end of the year.
What's taking the Curiosity so long to reach its target? Mars is anything but smooth and the rover experienced first-hand just how rough the terrain could get as it made its way to Mount Sharp. The road to the mountain got so difficult that the journey took a toll on the rover's wheels, prompting a search for an easier route for Curiosity to take.
A smoother route was plotted out for the Curiosity but it was faced with another problem: the road was too smooth. Hidden Valley is mostly sandy so the rover was able to avoid sharp rocks but it also didn't provide the Curiosity with enough traction. The rover wasn't making much progress with the new route so the robot's handlers decided to back to the original plan but still with the intention of finding a smoother path for the Curiosity to take.
There's also the fact that the rover isn't simply exploring Mars. As it makes its way to Mount Sharp, Curiosity has also been collecting samples. Its most recent task was to drill through a rock called the "Bonanza King."
Since 2012, the Curiosity rover has taken samples from three rocks. The "Bonanza King" would have added to the list except preliminary tests on the rock revealed that it was too unstable for drilling.
So what's Curiosity to do?
Move on.
"We have decided that the rocks under consideration for drilling, based on the tests we did, are not good candidates for drilling. Instead of drilling here, we will resume driving toward Mount Sharp," said Jim Erickson, Curiosity project manager from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
Analysis of the previous samples taken by the Curiosity Rover revealed that the region known as Yellowknife Bay used to be a lake-and-stream system where microbial life could've thrived billions of years ago. Yellowknife Bay is close to the site where Curiosity landed on Mars.
