"We have the first roving astrobiology laboratory roving on Mars." That was one of the first phrases uttered in today's status report on the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity, which took its first drive today. At a press conference held at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the people managing the mission also described the checkout of its instruments, some of the science that's already coming down from Curiosity, and the plans for the next few weeks.

The conference started with a tribute to Ray Bradbury, author of The Martian Chronicles, who would have turned 92 today. In tribute, NASA has named Curiosity's touchdown site Bradbury Landing.

From there on out, however, everything was focused on the getting away from that spot. The key to that ability, obviously, is the rover's drive system, and there the news was very good. "We have a fully functioning mobility system on our rover," the JPL staff announced, before describing the short drive it went on today. That drive was a simple 4.5 meters forward, a turn in place, and then 2.5m in reverse, with the mast camera scanning the wheels the whole time. Despite the length of the drive, this was enough to confirm that the drive system could manage a full rotation both in forward and reverse, and that its positioning system was functioning properly.

The rover is ready to roam.

The original plan was to keep it largely stationary until all its instruments were fully checked out. But progress on those check-outs has been rapid, and NASA is already done with a lot of the list that was planned to be completed by the end of August. The primary equipment still in need of testing is the scoop that will retrieve samples from the Martian surface and the on-board chemistry labs that will analyze it.

As a result of the progress so far, however, NASA and JPL have decided to start the rover off towards its first destination, a set of features that are approximately 400m away. The team will be on the lookout for soft, dusty looking terrain during that drive and, when spotted, will use that to check out the sample retrieval system and chemistry labs.

Meanwhile, a number of the systems are already sending back data. These include the weather monitors, which have sent back around-the-clock status reports of the local conditions in Gale Crater. But perhaps the most significant success has been with what's called the "chem cam." That system includes a laser designed to vaporize the surface of nearby rocks, along with a set of three spectrography systems: one for ultraviolet, another that spans UV and blue light, and a third that goes through the rest of the visual spectrum and into the infrared.

The chem cam has now imaged several samples, all beyond five feet from the rover itself. All of the rocks so far are basalts, meaning they're of volcanic origin. The chem cam successfully identified major components like oxygen, silicon, magnesium, and iron, as well as trace elements like titanium and manganese. The rover is also able to make repeated samplings of the same spot; hydrogen was apparent on the first two shots from the laser, but gone by the third (of 30 eventual exposures). That, the team suggested, indicated it was only present in dust that was on the surface of the rock, and was quickly vaporized off.

In case you missed it, that's an indication that we're already getting scientific results from Curiosity.

The JPL staff wanted to remind everyone that we're only barely into what will ultimately be at least a two-year mission, and a lot of things could go wrong during that time. But there was no disguising how excited they were about how smoothly everything was checking out.

Meanwhile, researchers continue to work on the data that has come down, which has allowed them to put together this high-resolution movie of Curiosity's descent, which includes the impact of its heat shield and an impressive view of the blast released as the sky crane lowered it to the surface. After viewing that, it's no surprise that the team felt it had to move elsewhere before taking some soil samples.