Curiosity Reaches 1-Kilometer Elevation Gain
| Date | August 26, 2026 |
|---|---|
| Credit | NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS |
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover reached the pinnacle — so far — of its 14-year-old mission on Aug. 26, 2026, when it marked an elevation gain of 1 kilometer in its journey from Gale Crater on Mars up the slope of Mount Sharp.
Curiosity obtained the accompanying mosaic image, a view looking back from its current position toward the floor of Gale Crater, on Aug. 1 and 2, 2026, the 4,972nd and 4,973rd Martian days, or sols, of the mission. This view, captured within a broad valley nicknamed “Valle Grande,” looks down the side of Mount Sharp, the 3-mile-tall (5-kilometer-tall) mountain that the rover has been climbing since 2014.
The view is a single panorama made up of 323 individual images snapped by Curiosity’s Mast Camera, or Mastcam. The color has been adjusted to match lighting conditions as the human eye would see them on Earth.
Figure A, below, is a crop from the center of the image that shows Curiosity’s rover tracks disappearing into the distance. The floor and northern rim of Gale Crater can be seen through the dusty, summertime atmosphere.
Curiosity was built by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is managed by Caltech in Pasadena, California. JPL leads the mission on behalf of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington as part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program portfolio. Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego built and operates Mastcam.
