Curiosity Makes Rover Tracks While Heading West

A rocky plain extends to the horizon dominated by small foothiils. The rover tracks are visible in the soil.

NASA’s Curiosity captured this panorama using its Mastcam while heading west away from Gediz Vallis channel on Nov. 2, 2024, the 4,352nd Martian day, or sol, of the mission. The Mars rover’s tracks across the rocky terrain are visible at right.

NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

November 19, 2024

Credit	NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Language	english

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover captured this view using its Mast Camera, or Mastcam, while heading west away from Gediz Vallis channel on Nov. 2, 2024, the 4,352nd Martian day, or sol, of the mission.

This panorama is made up of two mosaics: one consisting of 171 individual images taken at 12:16 p.m. local Mars time; and another consisting of 169 at 12:46 p.m. local Mars time. The color has been adjusted to match lighting conditions as the human eye would see them on Earth.

Rover tracks can be seen trailing behind Curiosity at right. The difficult, rocky terrain made for slow going.

The butte on the left side of the scene is nicknamed “Texoli”; the butte dominating the right side of the scene is nicknamed “Kukenán.”

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. Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego built and operates Mastcam.

For more about Curiosity, visit: science.nasa.gov/mission/msl-curiosity