The US space agency (Nasa) says it is now ready for its Curiosity rover to start drilling on Mars.
A target patch of ground has been chosen in an area that contains a diverse range of rocks, many of which were clearly deposited in water.
Richard Cook, the rover deputy project manager, said the team still needed to identify the exact spot for drilling.
This would become apparent after an assessment was made using the robot's survey instruments, he explained.
"Probably within two weeks is when we'll start our first drill holes," he told the BBC.
And he cautioned that it would be a slow process, not least because the drill mechanism needed to be cleaned of any contaminants that might have journeyed to Mars from Earth.
This means taking and dumping several cores before finally delivering an asprin-sized pinch of powdered rock to Curiosity's two big onboard analysis labs.
The mission team has named the prospective drill site after a former rover engineer, "John Klein", who died in 2011.
Curiosity has now spent 158 Martian days on the Red Planet.
It is trying to determine whether past environments in Gale Crater might have allowed any microbial life to flourish. Already it has identified rock deposits that were laid down in a streambed billions of years ago.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21036482#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa
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