NASA's Mars rover ready to drive

Rover Curiosity is a drive to determine whether the Red Planet has ever been hospitable to life.

The Mars rover Curiosity was due to wrap up an exhaustive, weeks-long instrument check yesterday, clearing the way for its first lengthy drive to determine whether the Red Planet has ever been hospitable to life, NASA officials said.

The six-wheeled, nuclear-powered rover landed five weeks ago inside a giant impact basin called Gale Crater, near the Martian equator, to conduct NASA s first astrobiology mission since the 1970s-era Viking probes.

For its final equipment check, Curiosity will manoeuvre its robot arm so its close-up camera touches the tray where processed rock and soil samples will be analysed.

The rover, equipped with an array of the most elaborate laboratory instruments ever sent to a distant world, also has a bit of sightseeing on its agenda. Scientists want to obtain video footage of the Martian moon Phobos passing by the sun.

Starting this evening, the plan is to "drive, drive, drive" until scientists find a suitable rock for the rover s first robotic "hands-on" analysis, mission manager Jennifer Trosper told reporters during a conference call on Wednesday