Mars rover spotted cruising around the Red Planet

Name: NASA announces end of the Mars Ingenuity Helicopter mission
Uploaded: 2024-01-25T16:28:51-05:00
Duration: 2 min 49 s
Description: NASA’s history-making Ingenuity Mars Helicopter has ended its mission on the Red Planet after three years.

Mars rover Curiosity celebrates ten years

Mars rover Curiosity has been exploring the Red Planet for a decade (NASA)

NASA’s Curiosity rover has been spotted mid-expedition on the Martian surface by an orbiting spacecraft, marking what scientists believe is the first time a Mars orbiter has captured an image of the rover in motion.

The recently released imagery was taken on Feb. 28 by the High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

In the enhanced image, Curiosity appears as a dark speck on the dusty terrain, with a path of tracks behind it.

NASA’s Curiosity rover appears as a dark speck by a camera aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. (NASA)

The orbiter has been circling Mars since 2006 and Curiosity has been exploring the planet since 2012, but their paths have rarely aligned for a clear shot of the rover in action until now.

"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," Doug Ellison, a member of Curiosity’s operating team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said in a statement.

SEE THE OBJECTS HUMANS LEFT BEHIND ON THE MOON

At the time the image was taken, the orbiter was flying roughly 200 miles above the Martian surface and is expected to continue to be in operation through the 2020s.

Curiosity, which travels at a top speed of less than 1 mph, is on a mission to investigate whether the solar system’s fourth planet was ever habitable for life.

Meanwhile, the orbiter is designed to study the planet’s atmosphere and serve as a critical relay point for data transmitted between Earth and ground-based instruments.

The Sharpest View Of Mars Ever Taken From Earth Was Obtained By The Recently Refurbished Nasa Hubble Space Telescope (Hst). This Stunning Portrait Was Taken With The Hst Wide Field Planetary Camera-2 (Wfpc2) On March 10, 1997, Just Before Mars Opposition, When The Red Planet Made One Of Its Closest Passes To The Earth (About 60 Million Miles Or 100 Million Km) (Photo By Nasa/Getty Images)

NASA’s Perseverance rover discovered "leopard spots" on a reddish rock nicknamed "Cheyava Falls" in Mars’ Jezero Crater in July 2024. ( )

A dust devil on Mars as seen by NASA's Perseverance rover on Aug. 30, 2023. (Image: NASA-JPL/Caltech ( )

NASA DEVELOPS "MOON DUSTER" TO ZAP AWAY LUNAR DUST

Curiosity is currently one of only two operational rovers on Mars. The other, Perseverance, landed in 2021 and is collecting rock samples that could one day be returned to Earth.

The European Space Agency has plans to join the exploration effort of the Martian surface, but its rover, which was scheduled for launch in 2028, may face delays.

NASA announces end of the Mars Ingenuity Helicopter mission

NASA’s history-making Ingenuity Mars Helicopter has ended its mission on the Red Planet after three years.