NASA's Curiosity rover marks a kilometre of elevation on Mars — and looks back at the road behind
Two new NASA panoramas capture Curiosity looking back at Gale Crater after reaching 1 kilometre of elevation above the crater floor — and sunrise over wind-carved cliffs on Mount Sharp.
NASA has released two new panoramas from its Curiosity rover, marking a milestone in its climb up a Martian mountain.
The first image shows the rover looking back at the floor of Gale Crater, its rim visible in the distance, captured on Sept. 5, 2026 — the 5,006th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. Nine days earlier, on Aug. 26 (Sol 4,996), Curiosity reached 1 kilometre of elevation above the crater floor. A sand ridge stretches across the foreground, with the rover’s right front wheel trench at right. The panorama is built from 95 Mastcam images, colour-adjusted to match Earth lighting conditions.
The second image catches sunrise over distant, wind-carved ridges called yardangs, captured Aug. 11, 2026 (Sol 4,982). Since 2014, Curiosity has been ascending Mount Sharp — a 5-kilometre mountain in Gale Crater — reading the planet’s climate record. At the mountain’s shoulder, the layer stack ends with the yardang layer; one theory holds it is a pile of volcanic ash, similar to equatorial deposits. Mount Sharp may have begun eroding before that layer was laid down, leaving a gap in the climate record. The six images were stitched on Earth and skip the usual white balancing, preserving the early-morning look.
Curiosity was built by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, managed by Caltech in Pasadena. JPL leads it for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate as part of the Mars Exploration Program; Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego built and operates Mastcam.
Sources: NASA Science photojournal — PIA26781, NASA Science photojournal — PIA25629
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