Mars Curiosity Rover Reaches 1 Kilometer Mark

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover has officially hit the 1 kilometer mark (0.62 miles), the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) announced on Wednesday.

Having first arrived on the Red Planet's surface on Aug. 5, 2012, the latest drive covered approximately 3 meters (about 10 feet), placing the robot's odometer at about 1.029 kilometers (3,276 feet). The short journey was completed on July 17 in the early afternoon of the rover's 335th Martian day of work on Mars.

"When I saw that the drive had gone well and passed the kilometer mark, I was really pleased and proud," said rover driver Frank Hartman of the JPL, located in Pasadena, Calif. "Hopefully, this is just the first of many kilometers to come."

Two weeks ago, Curiosity finished investigating science targets in the Glenelg area, about half a kilometer (500 yards) east of where the one-ton rover first landed. With this completed, it is headed toward Mount Sharp, about kilometers (5 miles) southwest of Glenelg.

Because Mount Sharp, located in the middle of Gale Crater, contains a myriad of exposed layers, scientists hope that by traveling up it, they will be able to look into the history of the planet's environmental history - a task it completed as early as September of last year near its landing site.

Though the rover may not have moved much since its landing nearly a year ago, it has already accomplished the mission's main science objective of uncovering evidence for an ancient wet environment with conditions likely favorable for microbial life.

The total cost of the mission comes to roughly $2.5 billion, according to NASA, including $1.8 billion for development and science investigations as well as additional amounts for launch and operations.