After a few days of its successful make or break landing, Curiosity had transmitted color images of the surrounding in a 360 degree panoramic video showing the terrain on the Gale Crater. Now, recently the mars rover had zapped a close-by rock on the crater with its laser in a target practice session on Sunday. The laser fired as 30 pulses spread over a duration of 10 seconds could burn a hole in the rock.

For the past two weeks since its landing, the rover has been testing the gadgets that it has been equipped, latest being the laser. The rover is also set to make its first move to the locations on Mars rolling on the 6 highly efficient wheels. The destination has been finalized too. The laser test is a part of the practice session for the actual mission of retrieving the data from the rocks after zapping them while it proceeds towards Mount Sharp, the 5 Km high mountain on the Gale Crater.
Further tests will establish if life on the surface of the planet was viable at any point of time in the past.

The flight controllers would soon command the rover to initiate the first drive. This whole project, to find the conditions on mars, is the most expensive mission sent to Mars which was worth $ 2.5 billion.

(AW- Anil)