While Curiosity is capable of climbing rocks about a meter high and terrain that's sloped up to 50 degrees, Watkins said they will try to avoid going over high rocks or traveling on slopes angled more than 10 degrees.

NASA said it has commissioned all of Curiosity's instruments except the arm and drill, which will be done in about a week. After that, it will check out the arm joints--essentially doing some wake-up exercises--and even some drilling. So while "final characterization" is probably a month away, NASA says after next week Curiosity will have a lot of capability.

The Road To Mount Sharp

Getting to Mount Sharp, where Curiosity will be doing the bulk of its work, will take some time.

NASA says even though Curiosity's main goal is to study the lower sedimentary layers of Mount Sharp, it's important to understand the context around the area and, as such, will take two or three samples along the way there. Each time the Rover performs sampling it means a few weeks of activity in terms of finding the sample, deploying the arm, acquiring the sample and processing it in the lab.