Is Mars Curiosity rover still working? Yes, and it just turned 10 – Deseret News

While the James Webb space telescope has been delivering unprecedented images of deep space, the Mars rover Curiosity continues to cover the Red Planet and recently reached a milestone.

Aug. 5 marked the 10-year-anniversary of Curiositys landing on Mars. Thats when a jetpack lowered NASAs Curiosity rover onto the Red Planet, beginning the SUV-size explorers pursuit of evidence that, billions of years ago, Mars had the conditions needed to support microscopic life, according to NASA.

And according to New Scientist, a software update will give Curiosity a 50% speed boost, bolstering a rover that has already greatly outlived its planned two-year lifespan.

According to NASA, Curiosity has:

Weve spent the last basically 10 years Martian mountain climbing, said Abigail Fraeman, Curiositys deputy project scientist.

Fraeman told Space.com this month that Curiosity has discovered that one, Mars was habitable, and two, that those habitable environments persisted for tens of millions of years, most likely, maybe even hundreds of millions of years, which was surprising and exciting.

Images from Curiositys mission can be found on NASAs Mars Exploration Program website.

Curiositys location is tracked on a map that shows its path through the Gale Crater.

The latest mission update from NASA shows Curiosity struggling to get through a sand ripple in Paraitepuy pass.

A poster celebrating the 10th anniversary of Curiositys deployment.

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Is Mars Curiosity rover still working? Yes, and it just turned 10 - Deseret News