NASA’s Mars Curiosity Rover has spent one week on the Red Planet and already sent back some incredible views of its immediate surroundings.
But now things are about to get even more interesting: The rover is concluding a massive software update that will allow it to begin driving around and sampling Martian soil and geology, officially embarking on its two-year scientific exploration mission to determine whether Mars ever had conditions capable of supporting life.
Plus, it’s now possible for ordinary Web users to look around the rover’s landing site from its point of view — a full 360 degrees — thanks to several recently published interactive panoramas made up of still images captured by Curiosity.