I have a second post this week on my Across the Universe blog for the Guardian :

Nasa's Curiosity rover is approaching the biggest turning point of its mission so far. Soon it will begin the year-long drive towards its primary objective: Mount Sharp

Expect the pace of the Curiosity mission – and presumably the discoveries – to start picking up. Until now, NASA has been going deliberately slowly so that it understands how to do things most efficiently with the rover. Now, it's growing more confident.

"We're hitting full stride," said Mars Science Laboratory project manager Jim Erickson of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California in a news telecon today...

You can read the full article here.