<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=iso-8859-1"><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=us-ascii"><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=iso-8859-1"></head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=us-ascii"><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=iso-8859-1"><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=iso-8859-1"><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Courier; "><span style="font-family: Helvetica; "></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px">* <b>Mars Science Laboratory</b> - <b>Curiosity</b> - September 24, 2012</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Courier; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><b>Curiosity Finishes Close Inspection of Rock Target</b></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Courier; min-height: 14px; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><i></i></span><br></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Courier; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px">"PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's rover Curiosity touched a Martian rock with its robotic arm for the first time on Sept. 22, assessing what chemical elements are in the rock called "Jake Matijevic."</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Courier; min-height: 14px; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Courier; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px">After a short drive the preceding day to get within arm's reach of the football-size rock, Curiosity put its Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) instrument in contact with the rock during the rover's 46th Martian day, or sol. The APXS is on a turret at the end of the rover's 7-foot (2.1-meter) arm. The Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), on the same turret, was used for close-up inspection of the rock. Both instruments were also used on Jake Matijevic on Sol 47 (Sept. 23).</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Courier; min-height: 14px; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Courier; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px">The Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument, which shoots laser pulses at a target from the top of Curiosity's mast, also assessed what chemical elements are in the rock Jake Matijevic. Using both APXS and ChemCam on this rock provides a cross calibration of the two instruments.</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Courier; min-height: 14px; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Courier; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px">With a final ChemCam laser testing of the rock on Sol 48 (Sept. 24), Curiosity finished its work on Jake Matijevic. The rover departed the same sol, with a drive of about 138 feet (42 meters), its longest yet. Sol 48, in Mars local mean solar time at Gale Crater, ended at 3:09 p.m. Sept. 24, PDT." </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; "></span></div></body></html>