There was a Curiosity telephone conference this morning to make an exciting announcement: they're (almost) done at Glenelg and are preparing for the drive south to Mount Sharp. (View a recording here; visuals and press release are here.) Allow me an editorial comment: at last!

The briefing included project manager Jim Erickson; sampling activity lead Joe Melko; and deputy project scientist Joy Crisp. There wasn't much science discussed; it was all operational details. Here's a summary.

Here's what Jim Erickson said (I've mixed in some stuff from the Q and A portion of the conference). "We have completed almost all the first-time activities...the processes and tools are now verified by use, and the pace is really picking up." They are ready to drive toward Mount Sharp. The science team is poring over Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Odyssey imagery to scout for future science stops, "to create a menu of possible stopping points." The total distance to be traversed from the current position to the entry point into the dune field that flanks the base of the mountain is about 8 kilometers. Engineers are scouting for vantage points from which they could achieve views of the discarded entry, descent, and landing hardware.

Melko gave a quick summary of the drilling activities at Cumberland. The Cumberland site was chosen as a good site for "dilution cleaning" of sample handling equipment. The actual act of drilling at Cumberland to a full depth of 65 millimeters only took 6 minutes -- within a few percent of the drilling time at John Klein. This is a good clue that the material is similar to that at John Klein. In other, harder rocks it could take up to 2 hours to drill to full depth. They collected 14 cubic centimeters of material from the drill hole, of which 6.5 cubic centimeters made it through the sieve. This was "in family" with the first drill sample. Here's a cool video of the drilling: