The Curiosity rover is prepared to begin its trek up a Mount-Rainier-size mountain in the middle of the Gale Crater on Mars. The rover fulfilled it’s first year goal of determining whether Mars ever offered a habitat suitable for microbial life after arriving in August of 2012. Sedimentary clay-bearing rocks on the crater floor revealed evidence that a freshawater-lakebed environment that existed billions of years ago and held all of the chemical elements necessary for microbe life.

Next, the geological layers of Mount Sharp will allow researchers at NASA to explore the environmental history of Mars. The rover will begin it’s exploration of the mountain with an examination of the lower slopes. The entry point is an outcrop called Pahrump Hills instead of the previously planned point called Murray Buttes. Both points lay along a boundary between the southern layer of the mountain and the crater-floe deposits washed down from the northern rim.

“Curiosity now will begin a new chapter from an already outstanding introduction to the world. After a historic and innovative landing along with its successful science discoveries, the scientific sequel is upon us,” said Jim Green, director of NASA’s Planetary Science Division in a statement.

The decision to move uphill sooner, is based in part on an improved understanding of the geography of the region based on examinations by Curiosity and images taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).

“It has been a long but historic journey to this Martian mountain. The nature of the terrain at Pahrump Hills and just beyond it is a better place than Murray Buttes to learn about the significance of this contact. The exposures at the contact are better due to greater topographic relief,” said Curiosity Project Scientist John Grotzinger of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California.

Curiosity’s route to Mount Sharp was altered earlier this year after the team realized that the sharp rocks on the original route were causing excessive wear on the rovers tires. The modifications brought Curiosity further south than had originally been intended.

“The wheels issue contributed to taking the rover farther south sooner than planned, but it is not a factor in the science-driven decision to start ascending here rather than continuing to Murray Buttes first. We have been driving hard for many months to reach the entry point to Mount Sharp. Now that we’ve made it, we’ll be adjusting the operations style from a priority on driving to a priority on conducting the investigations needed at each layer of the mountain,” said Jennifer Trosper, Curiosity Deputy Project Manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).

The work of the Curiosity rover will be followed up by NASA’s Mars 2020 rover. That mission, still in the planning stages, will conduct more detailed analysis of the Martian environment including, potentially, bringing rock and soil samples back to Earth for analysis.