Curiosity's Now Curious About the Martian Rocks Around It [Gallery]

Curiosity is continuing to play in the sand at Rocknest. While its CheMin and SAM instruments are getting a test run, analyzing samples of sand and, in the case of SAM, the Martian atmosphere, Curiosity is using its free hand to look around some more.

Last time around, it scoured the more distant locations and put together a panoramic view of its surroundings.

This time, it's taking a closer look at the things immediately next to it, like a couple of rocks like the ones that give Rocknest its name.

"The rover completed its third round of using vibration of scooped Martian soil to scrub the interior surfaces of the sample-processing mechanisms on the rover's arm," NASA provided an update.

"Also on Sol 81, the rover's Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument completed an analysis of a sample of Martian atmosphere," it added .

The next Martian day, on Sol 82, its Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) instrument snapped the photos of the rocks you see in the gallery below. It also prepared another soil sample for the CheMin instrument.

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