NASA has finished its latest update to the surface rover Curiosity. As per NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Project manager, Jim Ericson, Mars rover Curiosity is now working on the software version 11.

The Curiosity probe was launched by NASA on November 26, 2011 and it landed on the surface of Mars on August 6, 2012. Since then, this was for the third time that its software was updated.

This was the second attempt to install the latest version of the software. The first effort failed on November 7 when the rover dived into unexpected reboot and turned back to version 10.

As per Ericson, the second attempt to update to version 11 had taken a week's time to complete and is also successfully installed. The software update will provide greater flexibility to rovers arm on slopes and the capability to store data will also improve.

The aim of this mission is to study the habitability of the planet and also its geology and weather. It would also gather data for upcoming manned study of the planet.

Tohoku University's Takeshi Kuroda and colleagues says "When the temperature drops below the CO2 condensation level (-128 C or -199 F in the thin Martian air), mainly in the winter polar regions, the CO2 condenses to form ice".