The Mars rover Curiosity will take its first test drive on Wednesday, moving about three metres (10ft) on its own before steering back to its landing site, Nasa has said.
If all goes to plan Curiosity will end up parked at 90 degrees to its original touchdown position. "We want to park in a place we've exactly examined. We just want to be extra safe," said Michael Watkins, the mission manager.
Curiosity's only problem so far is the loss of one of its two wind sensors. Engineers suspect pebbles kicked up by the rover's landing rockets during touchdown may have hit its deck and severed delicate wires on one of the sensor's circuit boards. "These are pretty fragile devices," deputy project scientists Ashwin Vasavada said, adding the damage was believed to be permanent.
So far the wind sensor is the only instrument on Curiosity that is not working properly. On Monday the rover flexed its robot arm for the first time since landing on Mars and pivoted one of its back wheels, a preparation for Wednesday's test drive.
The arm holds a 33kg toolkit needed to collect and analyse rock and soil samples. "The arm has already performed all these motions on Earth, but in a different gravity condition and that gravity does matter," said rover engineer Louise Jandura.
The one-tonne, six-wheeled, nuclear-powered rover landed inside Gale crater on 6 August. Ultimately scientists plan to drive it to Mount Sharp, a three mile high mound rising from the centre of the crater's floor that is the primary target of the $2.5bn, two-year mission. Scientists believe Mount Sharp is the remnant of sediment that once completely filled the 96 mile wide basin.
The rover is equipped with 10 science instruments to search for organic materials and other minerals needed to support and possibly preserve signs of microbial life.
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