Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Curiosity rover made use of its Mastcam: Left camera on April 21,2015, Sol 962, to take this wheel image.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover has been passing through a valley called “Artist’s Drive” on the lower slope of Mount Sharp.

The machinery on Mars is showing wheel wear and tear as it steers through Artist’s Drive on its way toward higher layers on Mount Sharp after examining exposures of the mountain’s basal geological unit at “Pahrump Hills.”

Curiosity landed on Mars in August 2012.

NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image using its Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), located on the turret at the end of the rover’s robotic arm, on April 22, 2015, Sol 963.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

NASA’s overhead asset, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), continues to catch sight of NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover. Newly issued image was taken on April 8, 2015 as the robot passes through a valley called “Artist’s Drive” on the lower slope of Mount Sharp.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona

The image at left is from MRO’s High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera. It shows the rover’s position after a drive of about 75 feet (23 meters) during the 949th Martian day, or sol, of the rover’s work on Mars.

North is toward the top. The rover’s location, with its shadow extending toward the right, is indicated with an inscribed rectangle. The view in this image covers an area about 550 yards (500 meters) across.

Curiosity used a route through Artist’s Drive on its way toward higher layers on Mount Sharp after examining exposures of the mountain’s basal geological unit at “Pahrump Hills.” The rover’s “Logan Pass” science destination is at the bottom left of this image.

The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates HiRISE, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colorado.

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project and Mars Science Laboratory Project for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington.

Curiosity’s Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), located on the turret at the end of the rover’s robotic arm, snapped this image on April 17, 2015, Sol 958.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

A green star marks the location of NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover after a drive on the mission’s 957th Martian day, or sol, (April 16, 2015). The map covers an area about 1.25 miles (2 kilometers) wide.
The base map uses imagery from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona