video transcript

Mars rover Curiosity gears up for its toughest feat since landing on the rocky surface of the Red Planet. On Wednesday, NASA's one-ton, nuclear-powered mobile laboratory will take a 30 minute test drive inside the Gale Crater where it touched down. The test will be fairly simple: a quick three meter jaunt from its landing site and back. However, the drive will give scientists a feel for how the rover moves and responds ahead of its journey to a peak at the center of the crater. That peak is the primary target of the $2.5 billion dollar mission to see if Mars was host to some of the earliest life forms. On Monday the robot flexed its robotic arms and pivoted one of its six wheels in preparation for the test drive.