NASA's Curiosity Mars Rover

Bayer reconstructed frames credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/fredk

The 15 overlapping L-MastCam images assembled in MS-ICE

The raw images were acquired on Sol 4614 (July 30, 2025)

The drive distance was 26.33 m (86.38 ft).

This is a small screen capture of the official map, see the online map that covers the entire traverse since the rover landed in 2012. Since landing the rover's total traverse is 35.54 km (22.08 miles)

Full map: https://mars.nasa.gov/maps/location/?mission=Curiosity

The drive distance was 26.33 m (86.38 ft) During the drive the rover drove down into one of the boxwork pits before driving out and completing the drive to the south-southeast. This is a post drive NavCam image looking all the way to the crater floor and beyond to the rim walls of Gale crater on the horizon. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

This and more data is provided by JPL after each drive. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Mosaic of Bayer reconstructed overlapping L-MastCam images. For scale the workspace is a little under 2 meters wide.

NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image, looking out in the direction from where it came, with the rover's tracks visible through the dust and sand covering the ground. Curiosity acquired this image using its Left Navigation Camera on July 28, 2025 — Sol 4612, or Martian day 4,612 of the Mars Science Laboratory mission — at 00:27:23 UTC. NASA/JPL-Caltech

Written by Conor Hayes, Graduate Student at York University

Earth planning date: Monday, July 28, 2025

Today was a pretty straightforward day of planning. Our drive over the weekend completed successfully, and we quickly confirmed that we are parked in a stable position. Thus, we were able to unstow the rover's arm to poke around in our new workspace, which features a large sand-filled fracture. Aside from all of the good geology work to be done, the view from our current location is quite spectacular.

We're still in the time of year where the atmosphere at Gale is reasonably dust-free (at least, compared to later in the year), allowing us to look all the way out to and beyond the Gale crater rim. The upper slopes of Mount Sharp have also re-emerged to our east after spending months hidden behind the walls of Gediz Vallis. There's a bit more sand and dust in this location than we've seen recently, so we can also see the trail left behind by the rover's wheels as we drove to this location (see the image above).

We're still deep in our examination of the boxwork structures that we're now driving through, so most of Curiosity's attention in this plan is focused much closer to the rover than any of the scenic vista surrounding us. APXS, DRT, and MAHLI will all take a look at “Cañón de Palca,” some bedrock close to the large fracture in this workspace. Mastcam and ChemCam RMI will image some boxwork ridges at “Caine,” and will also collaborate on imaging of the weekend's post-drive AEGIS target and a LIBS bedrock target “Doña Ines.” Mastcam's solo activities include taking a look at some layering at “Paniri butte” and at MAHLI to examine a speck of dust that may have fallen on the lens.

We'll be driving away from this location along one of the boxwork ridges, which, at about 5 meters (about 16 feet) wide, is more than large enough to fit our car-sized rover. Post-drive activities are largely focused on environmental monitoring, including Navcam line-of-sight and dust-devil surveys to look at dust, and several Navcam cloud movies. As usual, ChemCam will also join the post-drive fun with an AEGIS observation. More environmental monitoring by REMS, RAD, and DAN fill out the remainder of this plan.

This table is compiled using data shared by JPL shortly after each drive

Assembled from 15 overlapping Bayer reconstructed L-MastCam images.

The path of the drive is highlighted in yellow. The white dots are waypoints reached after each drive.

This is just a small screen capture of the on-line map, that's updated by the JPL mission team after each drive

Check out the full map that has the entire traverse (almost 13 years of driving in Gale crater.

link: https://mars.nasa.gov/maps/location/?mission=Curiosity

Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

Data extracted from the JSON URLs that are updated shortly after each drive on Mars

A nice R-NavCam view of the tracks and terrain after a ~24 meter drive to the SSW during sol 4609. From this location the rover has a nice view into one of the deeper sections. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Sol 4608: Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI)

This image was taken by MAHLI onboard NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 4608 (2025-07-24T03:27:47.000Z)

Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image, looking toward the upper slopes of Mount Sharp, using its Left Navigation Camera (Left Navcam) on July 20, 2025. Curiosity captured the image on Sol 4605, or Martian day 4,605 of the Mars Science Laboratory mission, at 18:58:26 UTC. NASA/JPL-Caltech

Written by Deborah Padgett, MSL OPGS Task Lead at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Earth planning date: Monday, July 21, 2025

Curiosity continues our exploration of the fractured boxwork terrain on the slopes of Mount Sharp. After a successful 5-meter drive (about 16 feet), our rover is resting in a hollow on its way to a boxwork ridge viewpoint. Over the weekend, Curiosity began an atmospheric observation with the SAM instrument, which will continue into today’s plan. Because the SAM instrument is complex and powerful, it uses a great deal of energy when it operates, causing what we call a “deep dip” in the battery charge level. This means that we have to wait a bit after the SAM observations complete for the battery to recharge enough for Curiosity to observe its surroundings with other science instruments, or move its arm or wheels. For this reason, the plan today does not include a drive, and contact science at this location will be done on the second sol of the plan.

On Sol 4607, Curiosity will begin the day with SAM atmospheric composition activity, which will run for several hours. After it finishes, we will use the rover’s navigation camera to perform a cloud altitude observation, looking for cloud shadows on the upper reaches of Mount Sharp, and clouds drifting by overhead at the zenith. Overnight, Curiosity’s battery will recharge, allowing us to perform a targeted science block on the morning of Sol 4608. This starts with Navcam observations of dust opacity across the floor of Gale Crater, then a measurement of dust in the air toward the Sun with Mastcam. Curiosity then turns Mastcam toward the ridge ahead to obtain a 15x1 mosaic on target “Cueva De Los Vencejos Y Murcielagos (Cave of Swifts and Bats).” Afterwards, Mastcam will look back along Curiosity’s tracks, hoping to see freshly broken rocks and determine the texture of disturbed ground. Next, ChemCam’s laser spectrograph will zap a nodular rock pillar named for the famous high-altitude “Lake Titicaca” bordering Bolivia and Peru. A second ChemCam observation with the RMI telescopic camera will study stratigraphy on the Mishe Mokwa butte with a 5x2 image mosaic. Mastcam will finish off this science block by looking at the pits left behind by the ChemCam laser on target “Lake Titicaca.”

In the afternoon, Curiosity’s arm will reach out to brush the dust from the bedrock target “La Tranquita,” then observe it with the MAHLI microscopic imager and APXS. MAHLI and APXS will also investigate plate-like rock formations at target “Aqua Dulce.” A third target with more complex rock structures dubbed “Paposo,” after a natural monument along the Pacific Coast of northern Chile, will be imaged only by MAHLI. The next morning will include another targeted science block. Curiosity will then drive away toward the next viewpoint in the boxwork terrain of Mars.

Assembled from 15 overlapping mast camera images after the short drive on sol 4605

The L-MastCam's will show more detail, but they have not been downlinked at this time

All data is from JPL's JSON URLs.

Screen grab of the official map.

The 4605 drive path is highlighted in yellow.

15 Bayer Reconstructed Left MastCam overlapping images roughly assembled into a mosaic using MS-ICE

MSL - Sol 4602 - MAHLI - De-correlated Color

Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/Kevin M. Gill

NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image looking along the ridge it is exploring during its planned activities for July 16, 2025. Curiosity acquired this image using its Left Navigation Camera on July 15 — Sol 4600, or Martian day 4,600 of the Mars Science Laboratory mission — at 17:12:14 UTC. NASA/JPL-Caltech

Written by Alex Innanen, Atmospheric Scientist at York University

Earth planning date: Wednesday, July 16, 2025

As we hoped, we successfully climbed the 11-meter ramp (about 36 feet) and have arrived at the top of the ridge and the start of the main boxwork region. This means we’re moving into the next phase of the boxwork campaign, which is all about assessing these features and how we can navigate our way through them, and learning everything we can about their composition.

In support of that, we’re taking a good look around at the boxwork ridges with both ChemCam and Mastcam. Both instruments are taking mosaics of the more distant ridges to get a broader view of their features. A bit closer in, Mastcam has three more mosaics: two looking at different views of “El Corral” and “Chapare,” both of which we saw in Monday’s plan, and “Meson,” which is the ridge we’ll be heading for in today’s 15-meter drive (about 49 feet).

It's not all looking ahead, though. The workspace in front of us has a lot to offer as well. Mastcam will be turning its sights to some nearby linear features. Our workspace is also full of nodular bedrock, which is getting lots of up-close attention. ChemCam will be turning its LIBS laser on a target called “Altamora,” and MAHLI and APXS will be examining another target called “Nocarane.”

With all the geological excitement, we can still manage to squeeze in some time to keep an eye on the environment. Though we don’t always mention them, REMS, RAD, and DAN are always there working steadily away to build up our understanding of Mars’ environment. We’ll also round out the plan with a suprahorizon cloud movie and a 360-degree dust-devil survey.

Annotated screen grab of the official map

The data was just released by JPL in one update, so I've separated the three drive

Drive on sol 4602 (July 17, 2025) to site 117.2490.

Post-drive HazCam shows the rover parked at the edge of a small erosion resistant ridge

Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The official data for this drive (distance / location etc) and the previous drive, has not been publicly released by NASA/JPL at the time of this post. I'll provide updates after the data becomes available.