Aug 04, 2015 12:58 PM EDT By Russell Westerholm, UniversityHerald Reporter

As NASA approaches the third anniversary of landing the Curiosity rover on the surface of Mars, the space agency is putting into motion certain objectives to prepare for the next Martian mission.

Aug. 5, 2015 will mark the third Earth year Curiosity has spent on Mars, a journey that has overlapped with the Opportunity rover's 11-year stay on the Red Planet. In its three years, Curiosity trekked almost 11km to get to its ultimate destination: Mount Sharp.

But along the way, the rover stopped frequently to gather and test samples with its built in analysis equipment. Both Curiosity and Opportunity have gathered enough evidence to suggest Mars at least could have once hosted microbial life.

But now NASA is looking forward. According to a recent press release, the space agency ordered the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) to make a maneuver in its orbit of the Red Planet to make way for the InSight lander planned for launch in 2016.

MRO burned its thrusters for 77 seconds on July 29, making it the biggest maneuver in nearly 10 years. The move will optimize its position for radio transmission with the InSight lander currently slated for touchdown on Sept. 28, 2016.

Meanwhile, Curiosity continues to examine Mount Sharp, which NASA scientists identified as a potential trove of geological evidence. The roving science lab's latest discovery involved bedrock with unusually high levels of silica, a compound on Earth commonly found in quartz.

Said Roger Wiens, the principal investigator of the ChemCam instrument from the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, in a press release, "One never knows what to expect on Mars, but the Elk target was interesting enough to go back and investigate."

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