NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has captured a unique image of the Curiosity rover moving across the Martian surface. Taken on February 28, 2025, by MRO's HiRISE camera, the image marks what is believed to be the first time an orbiting spacecraft has photographed the rover in motion.
The image reveals Curiosity as a dark speck at the front of a trail of tracks stretching approximately 320 meters (1,050 feet) across Gale Crater. These tracks, representing roughly 11 drives since February 2, are expected to last for months before Martian winds erase them. During these drives, Curiosity traveled at a top speed of 0.16 kilometers per hour (0.1 miles per hour).
Curiosity landed in Gale Crater in August 2012 to determine if Mars could have once supported microbial life. The rover's data indicates that Gale Crater was once a habitable environment, featuring lakes and rivers with essential ingredients and a chemical energy source for microbial metabolism. The rover is currently en route to a region with potential boxwork formations, which may have been created by groundwater billions of years ago.