A new image released by NASA this week shows the Mars Rover Curiosity’s view of the red planet in a sweeping 360 degrees. The rover, which is en route toward a location known as Glenelg since last week, has been prodigiously snapping photos with its navigation camera, and mission handlers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory stitched together this panorama that shows both where Curiosity has been and where it is going.
The photos used in the panorama are from August 30, when Curiosity logged a 70-foot drive toward Glenelg, the site where it will do its first geologic drilling. It drove an additional 98 feet on September 1, so you can get an idea of the pace of things there on Mars. Glenelg is roughly 1,300 feet away from Curiosity’s landing site, so it’s going to take a few weeks for the rover to reach its destination.
In the detail below (taken from the same image) you can see the tracks Curiosity has left behind on the Martian frontier–proof that there’s some trail-blazing science taking place up there.
