The Curiosity Mars rover was a success the moment it touched down on the red planet in 2012, and more than a decade later, it's still making history. This plucky NASA robot is on its way out of a region known as Marker Band Valley, but the team took the opportunity to commemorate this step with a new Martian "postcard." In it, Curiosity looks back at the valley as it moves on, showing the scene with morning and afternoon lighting.
Curiosity is exploring the foothills around Mount Sharp, the central peak in Gale Crater. The images that contributed to the postcard were captured a few months back at the beginning of April at 9:20 a.m. and 3:40 p.m. local Mars time. The image comes from the rover's navigation camera, which takes panoramic images each time the robot relocates. This is a black-and-white sensor, so NASA added the color in postprocessing, taking a little creative liberty.
The postcard shows the Martian afternoon on the left with a reddish yellow sky, and the right side of the image is from the morning, accented with pale blue. Combining images taken at two different times gives the scene an eerie look.
"Anyone who’s been to a national park knows the scene looks different in the morning than it does in the afternoon,” said Doug Ellison, a Curiosity engineer at JPL. "Capturing two times of day provides dark shadows because the lighting is coming in from the left and the right, like you might have on a stage – but instead of stage lights, we’re relying on the Sun."
You can also see the rover's tread tracks stretching out toward the horizon in the image. Curiosity passed many of the geological formations visible in the distance, including the Bolivar and Deepdale hills visible toward the center. These rises border "Paraitepuy Pass," which the rover explored in late 2022. The Marker Band Valley region is where Curiosity found its latest and best evidence for water on Mars. A bit of the rover is also visible, showing its three communication antennas and RTG nuclear power source. You can see all the features of the image labeled below.
JPL designed Curiosity to last about two years, but it only took a few months for the rover to accomplish its primary objective of finding evidence of Mars' watery past. NASA has extended Curiosity's mission indefinitely and taken lessons learned from this rover to make Perseverance even more capable. Perseverance has only been on Mars for about two years, but if Curiosity is anything to go by, it has a long life ahead.
