The Phantom rover of Bradbury Landing

Curiosity's landing site finally has a name; Bradbury Landing after the writer, Ray Bradbury.

Ray Bradbury (Photo by Alan Light)

Regardless of my naivete since I have yet to read any of his stories, needless to say his reputation preceded him and his passion for science and story writing made him a good guy in my books. His most famous and well known works include Fahrenheit 451 and The Martian Chronicles as well as a host of other equally good short stories.

Bradbury passed away this year on June 5th at the age of 91. He was known widely in the space community in America so he is greatly missed I'm sure. He even paid a visit at the Jet Propulsion Laboratories once and had a chance to drive the Mars Exploration Rovers at the time. So its no surprise that the mission team has decided on his name to commemorate Curiosity's landing spot. Bravo!

The rover has executed it's drive today perfectly (that was sol 16 I believe or August 22). The drive took 16minutes and placed the rover 6metres from its Bradbury Landing. So far so good!

Sol 16 navigation camera shot of Bradbury Landing and Curiosity's first set of tracks (NASA/JPL-Caltech)

This is an interesting picture because it looks as if the rover just appeared out of no where and started driving! I suppose that would make Curiosity the 'phantom of Bradbury Landing'!

UPDATE: here is a lovely video clip showing how exactly the rover drove today.