When could moving 15 feet be an important distance? One such situation I can remember is when a baby takes his first steps on his feet, though with a staggering gait. The feelings of NASA scientists couldn't have been any different after Curiosity, its latest Mars Rover had made a modest yet successful drive for the first time on the surface of the Red Planet.

In the first drive, a test drive, Curiosity had advanced 15 feet starting from its initial position after its landing 17 days ago. It had moved 15 feet, turned 120 degrees and then moved back 8 feet in a little more than 16 minutes, taking several pictures stopping at every single step of its success.

This is the most overwhelming situation yet for the NASA scientists to see their "baby" move along and leave trails of its wheels on the mud.

The Project Manager said that this was the most important part of the mission yet saying that the Curiosity is starting to do what it was intended to do, rove.  Peter C. Theisinger said, "I mean, we built a rover. So unless the rover roves, we really haven't accomplished anything."

Curiosity is to spend at least a couple of years roving through a 96-mile-wide crater and up a 3.4-mile-high mountain at the center of the crater, exploring for signs that early Mars could have been habitable for microbial life.

"Everything has been going extremely well," Mr. Theisinger said. "Really extremely well."

Earlier a couple of days ago, the rover had burned holes in to a Martian rock to analyze the atomic structures. We've got a long way to go before this mission meets its full potential," he said concluding that their success in the early stages is something they should feast on.

(AW- Anil)