New NASA Image Depicts Mars Rover's Lonely Journey From Above
A recent snapshot from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) offers a brand-new look at the Curiosity rover's Martian journey. Published Thursday, the image depicts Curiosity's snail-like tracks on the Red Planet's dusty terrain. The rover itself appears as a tiny dot at the bottom of the tracks, revealing just how long and lonely its trek really is.
The MRO's HiRISE (High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) camera captured the image on Feb. 28, 2025—Curiosity's 4,466th sol. At the time, Curiosity was making its way from the Gediz Vallis channel to the foothills of lower Mount Sharp, where a complex network of ridges might inform Mars' watery history. The rover is still making that journey, but it wasn't quite as far along by then, stunted by its 0.1 mile-per-hour maximum speed.
Because Curiosity was still in the earlier half of its latest road trip—which began in November 2024 and is expected to end toward the middle of this year—MRO's snapshot includes only 1,050 feet of tracks. These were made over 11 drives, which occur between Curiosity's stops to take pictures, assess its surroundings, study Martian geology, and transmit data.
"By comparing the time HiRISE took the image to the rover's commands for the day, we can see it was nearly done with a 69-foot drive," said Doug Ellison, chief of the Curiosity planning team.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
The tracks seen above are "likely to last for months before being erased by wind," according to JPL. That wind will not only erode the tracks themselves but fill them in with Mars' ultra-fine dust, eventually obscuring Curiosity's footprints as it has obscured JPL's retired InSight lander over time.
By the time the tracks vanish, Curiosity will have reached Mount Sharp's boxwork: a "weblike pattern of ridges" first captured by the MRO in 2006. On Earth, boxwork forms when groundwater squeezes through underground rock fractures, depositing minerals that erode over eons into a sponge-like shape.
Though scientists know by now that Mars definitely possessed water at one point, the jury is still out on how that water sculpted the Martian landscape—and whether it once supported life. With the Red Planet's boxwork having crystallized in a warm, wet subsurface environment, researchers are eager to discover whether microbes could have survived where only an eerie geological landmark remains.
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