Pasadena, California (CNN) -- The Mars rover Curiosity successfully raised the mast that holds many of its instruments Wednesday, giving controllers a view of the ground scorched by the rockets that deposited it on the surface. The car-sized rover landed on Mars early Monday after a harrowing descent that climaxed with its being lowered by a "skycrane" that hovered over the landing site. Cameras mounted on Curiosity's remote sensing mast beamed back fresh images of the site once the column was raised into position, giving NASA a view of the roughly half-meter (19-inch) "scour marks" from the rocket exhaust. Those gouges are giving mission controllers an unexpectedly early view of the bedrock beneath the surface of Gale Crater, said John Grotzinger, a Curiosity project scientist at the California Institute of Technology.
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NEW: Mars landscape resembles Mojave Desert, scientist observes
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NEW: Images are used to program the rover for the next day, controller says
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Curiosity photos capture gouges left by its dramatic landing
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Two snags reported Tuesday have been resolved, controllers say
Curiosity
Curiosity
While @placeholder isn't yet ready to start driving around, "Here we've already got an exploration hole drilled for us," Grotzinger said.
Mars
Mars
Mars
The mission of the mobile science laboratory is to determine whether @placeholder ever had an environment capable of supporting life.