Tech article 10/4

Curiosity rover pauses to                        get the scoop on Mars

NASA's mars rover has paused to collect soil on fine-grained sand dunes. After creeping near 500 yards across the rocky floor of Gale Crater on the way to an interesting intersection of different terrain, the Mars Curiosity rover is pausing for a few weeks to scoop up soil and run it through the vehicle's sample acquisition system to clean out any lingering traces of Earth's environment.

After three such "rinse and repeat" cycles, a scoop on the end of the rover's robot arm will deposit small samples into itself. A machine will use X-ray's to identify the minerals in a sample. But first, all traces of Earth's environment must be cleaned away to eliminate any chance of contaminating a Mars sample.   

My Opinion: I think it is pretty cool that the curiosity rover can do this work. This makes astronauts lives much safer and easier. I can't wait to see what it finds.