While the James Webb space telescope has been delivering unprecedented images of deep space, the Mars rover Curiosity continues to cover the Red Planet and recently reached a milestone.
How old is Mars Rover Curiosity?
Aug. 5 marked the 10-year-anniversary of Curiosity’s landing on Mars. That’s when “a jetpack lowered NASA’s Curiosity rover onto the Red Planet, beginning the SUV-size explorer’s pursuit of evidence that, billions of years ago, Mars had the conditions needed to support microscopic life,” according to NASA.
And according to New Scientist, a software update will give Curiosity a 50% speed boost, bolstering a rover that “has already greatly outlived its planned two-year lifespan.”
According to NASA, Curiosity has:
- Covered 18 miles.
- Ascended 2,050 feet.
- Analyzed 41 rock and soil samples.
“We’ve spent the last basically 10 years Martian mountain climbing,” said Abigail Fraeman, Curiosity’s deputy project scientist.
Fraeman told Space.com this month that Curiosity has discovered that “one, Mars was habitable, and two, that those habitable environments persisted for tens of millions of years, most likely, maybe even hundreds of millions of years, which was surprising and exciting.”
Images from Curiosity’s mission can be found on NASA’s Mars Exploration Program website.
Where is Curiosity now?
Curiosity’s location is tracked on a map that shows its path through the Gale Crater.
The latest mission update from NASA shows Curiosity struggling to get through a “sand ripple” in Paraitepuy pass.
