So, Curiosity Rover finally moved and left landing, named after the late writer ray Bradbury.

The Rover has demonstrated that it is able to go forward and backward, and rotate. In the result, now it is about six metres away from the point, where it stayed for two weeks. The test confirmed the full functionality of the system movement.

The proposal to honor the memory of the great science fiction came from operators mission in connection with the fact that he was born just in the day of the test-drive - August 22, 92 years ago. To everyone's sorrow, writer died earlier this summer. "The choice was easy, " says project officer Michael Meyer. - Many of us, like millions of other readers, were inspired by his dreams of life on Mars."

The leadership of NASA reacted to the proposal favorably and secured the landing site name Bradbury Landing.

"Curiosity" will spend a few more days to work near Bradbury, testing tools, and exploring the surroundings, then it will go to the first destination, located approximately 400 m to the East-Southeast. "Curiosity is the most complex Rover in history, " explains Pete Theisinger from the jet propulsion Laboratory of NASA. Testing during the first weeks of his stay on the red planet laid the foundations for the safe management of such a valuable national resource. And sixteen days we have made significant progress."

One of the last tests was the analysis of the rocks exposed at landing. Tool ChemCam with a laser and spectrometers determined that exposure conventionally called Goulburn (Goulburn), has mainly basalt composition. "Perhaps it basalt inclusion in the sedimentary material", says Roger was WANs from Los Alamos national laboratory.