NASA’s Curiosity has now been on the surface of Mars for 49 days. In that time, the six-wheeled, one-ton rover has roved 350 meters, made extensive use of all 17 of its on-board cameras, wiggled its robotic arm around a bit, and fired its plutonium-powered laser multiple times. As it bounds across the surface of the Red Planet, Curiosity has even fired neutrons into the ground, testing for the presence of water — but alas, it hasn’t found any yet.

Two days ago, Curiosity stopped to analyze a football-size piece of Martian basalt called Jake Matijevic (named after one of Curiosity’s chief engineers who recently passed away). Not only did Curiosity analyze the rock’s structure and chemical makeup using its ChemCam spectroscopic laser, but it also used its Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) for the first time, and also took the first ultra-close-up photos using the MAHLI camera. The rock was primarily chosen to see if the results from APXS match up with ChemCam.

In the photo at the top of the story, Jake Matijevic is about 8 feet (2.5m) in front of Curiosity. The robot arm, as you can see in the picture above, is 7 foot long — and tacked on the end is a turret that is armed with some of Curiosity’s most important instruments, including the APXS and MAHLI. In the video below, you can see how the robot arm is extended and manipulated until it is just 2.5cm away from the rock.

Before now, Curiosity had only really used MAHLI to take self portraits, but its actual purpose is to take close-up shots of rocks and soil on the surface of Mars. In the photo below (be sure to click it to zoom in), you can see just how awesome MAHLI’s close-up resolution actually is. The outer image is a single, two-megapixel image taken from 25 centimeters away; the second image is taken from 5cm; and the middle image is a two-megapixel image taken from just 2.5cm.

In this case, Jake Matijevic is expected to be a plain ol’ piece of basalt, so we don’t expect any exciting results from this analysis. The close-up photos taken by MAHLI are stunning, though, and NASA is undoubtedly very excited about what the camera might uncover when the rover reaches its first major scientific destination, Glenelg.

Curiosity is now more than half way to Glenelg, which is where Curiosity will finally try out its drill. The drill is on the end of the robotic arm, and is capable of drilling holes that are 1.6cm wide and 5cm deep, primarily for the purpose of obtaining samples that can be scooped up analyzed by Curiosity’s on-board science labs. There has been some controversy about whether Curiosity’s drill bits might be capable of contaminating Mars, as they weren’t correctly sealed prior to launch; there are also two spare drill bits, in case they get stuck during drilling.

In other news, we also have two other photos taken by MAHLI — both of which are rather patriotic. The first is the US flag medallion (there are also NASA, JPL, and Curiosity medallions placed elsewhere on the rover), and the second is the presidential plaque, which shows the signatures of President Obama, Vice President Biden, NASA administrator Charles Bolden, and other important dignitaries.

And finally, we have an animated GIF of Mars’ moon Phobos transiting the Sun — i.e. a partial solar eclipse — taken by the 100mm Mastcam.

Check out more beautiful photos taken by Curiosity on the surface of Mars