The team switched from Mars Curiosity time on earth

After three months on "Martian time," a team of scientists, which supervise NASA's Mars rover Curiosity, went to work on a standard work schedule, "Earth time."

Martian day, called "Salt", lasts for 40 minutes longer than the earth, so the beginning of the shift to the members of the scientific team was shifted a few hours each week in advance. Rover team includes more than 200 engineers from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory of NASA and about 400 researchers, mainly from other academic institutions.

This week, the researchers plan to deliver the first sample of the solid matter in the Martian tool Sample Analysis at Mars, or SAM, all-terrain vehicle.

The 89th sol mission (November 5, 2012) another analytical tool rover Chemistry and Mineralogy, or CheMin, finished second in line to the analysis of a sample of Martian soil and dumped it back. This sample was delivered to the tool bucket CheMin rover robotic arm, which dipped it in a place called «Rocknest". Also on the 89th sol came confirmation of completion tool SAM test analysis in preparation for the planned analysis of the new model. In the coming days, scientists are going to put the new samples of Martian soil in both instruments, SAM and CheMin.