As I write this, the sun is rising on Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity for the 32nd time since it landed on the Red Planet. Three days ago, on sol 29, the one-ton rover completed its longest drive yet — and now, for the first time, Curiosity has extended its 7-foot (2.1m) robot arm, which plays hosts to some of the rover’s most important scientific instruments.

On sol 29 (1 sol = 1 Martian day = 24 hours and 37 minutes), Curiosity drove 30 meters, meaning the rover is now around 100 meters from its touchdown point at Bradbury Landing. After testing its robotic arm, Curiosity will continue onward to its first location of interest, Glenelg (which is still 300 meters away). In the stunning photo below you can see Curiosity’s tracks shot by the HiRISE camera aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which is orbiting overhead at an altitude of 300km (186mi).

Curiosity is technically capable of traversing the Martian landscape at the breakneck pace of 90 meters per hour (0.056mph!), but in practice Curiosity will probably stay under 30 meters per hour. If these speeds seem incredibly slow, remember that Curiosity’s radioisotope thermoelectric generator only produces 125 watts, or 0.16 horsepower. I can only begin to imagine the gearing and fancy mechanics required for 125 watts to push the 900kg (2,000lb) over flat ground, let alone over obstacles.

Starting two days ago (sol 30), and for the next eight days, Curiosity is flexing and testing its robotic arm. As you can see in the photo at the top of the story (taken by Mastcam, larger version), the arm has a lot of tools and instruments. In the center of the image (the red circle, which is the same diameter as a soda can) is MAHLI, the Mars Hand Lens Imager, a 2-megapixel camera that’s outfitted with a macro lens for taking close-up shots of the Martian surface. On the far right is the DRT — or, in layman’s terms, the dust removal tool (it’s simply a motorized wire brush). I think the instrument in the top left corner is the Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS).

Just like NASA had to calibrate Mastcam, the next week will now be spent calibrating the robot arm and its various instruments. “We will be putting the arm through a range of motions and placing it at important ‘teach points’ that were established during Earth testing, such as the positions for putting sample material into the inlet ports for analytical instruments,” says Daniel Limonadi, lead systems engineer for Curiosity’s surface sampling and science system. “These activities are important to get a better understanding for how the arm functions after the long cruise to Mars and in the different temperature and gravity of Mars, compared to earlier testing on Earth.”

In the meantime, while we wait for Curiosity to send back the first scientific data from its robot arm instrumentation, have a few more beautiful photos from the surface of Mars and the high-resolution HiRISE camera aboard the MRO.

Read: Curiosity, and the future of human space exploration, and Could you hack Mars rover Curiosity?