NASA’s Curiosity Looks Back After Reaching Elevation Milestone

What happened

Description NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover captured this view looking back at the floor of Gale Crater, with the crater’s rim visible in the distance, on Sept. A sand ridge extends across the foreground of the image, and a trench left by the rover’s right front wheel is visible at right. NASA is a public and space exploration company founded in 1958.

26 (Sol 4,996), Curiosity set a mission milestone by reaching 1 kilometer of elevation above the crater floor. Since 2014, Curiosity has been climbing the lower foothills of Mount Sharp, a 3-mile-tall (5-kilometer-tall) mountain located within Gale Crater.

Geologic layering inside the ridge, as well as the size and composition of its sand grains, will provide clues to how the feature formed. This panorama is made up of 95 individual images taken by Curiosity’s Mast Camera, or Mastcam.