After Two Years Of Driving, Curiosity Found The Dirt It Was Looking For

[pokerfan]

http://io9.com/after-two-years-of-driving-curiosity-found-the-dirt-it-1639528183

It's been a long, strange, and really very enjoyable roadtrip for Curiosity, our robot rover to the stars (and planets). But more than two years after it landed on Mars, and commenced rolling towards Mount Sharp, it has finally arrived — and it's started drilling.

Curiosity drilled this hole, just under 2-centimeters wide, into the side of Mount Sharp. After the analysis and many others like it are finished, NASA scientists say that they'll have a much better idea of what ancient conditions (around the time that the mountain was forming) on Mars were like.

[phantom power]

1. our robot rover to one planet (no stars)

[PeoViejo]

2. Sepia Toning

1960's Stucco Houses. I think Mars would be boring.

[starroute]

3. Looks a lot like the rocks in my backyard

But we live on the Old Red Sandstone, which formed when an ancient mountain chain eroded into an ancient rift valley 200 million years ago and formed a layer of rocks a couple of miles thick. Somehow I don't think that's what happened on Mars.

[Wounded Bear]

4. Amazing that guy is still going...