NASA’s Curiosity rover spent seven long years on Mars, roaming the Red Planet in search of signs of ancient life.
The time spent fighting the hard element of Mars, with its freezing temperatures, harsh winds and dusty storms, left quite an impact on the car’s sized robot.
A side-by-side comparison of an image that the rover had captured shortly after landing on the Red Planet and one that the robot took back in January highlights its shocking transformation.
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The photo was posted on the Imgur image sharing site with a “before” photo. It later landed on the Reddit space community board, climbing the ranks with tens of thousands of positive votes.
Curiosity was launched into space in November 2011 and landed on Mars on August 5, 2012. It followed in the footsteps of its predecessors Sojourner, Opportunity and Spirit and will soon be followed by the Perseverance rover, which is scheduled to land on Mars in February 2021.
Throughout his time on Mars, the Curiosity rover likes to take selfies using the extended robotic arm, with a camera attached to the end.
In one of the most recent communications with Earth, the Curiosity rover took a picture of him on Mars on October 11, 2019. And the comparison of Curiosity’s most recent selfie with the ones he caught earlier in his journey he shows the value that the Red Planet has taken on the robotic explorer.
Curiosity had to navigate the rocky surface of Mars, with dry white lakes, craters and volcanoes. The red planet is also covered in red dust, which is often blown by the harsh winds of Mars in tornado-like dust storms, sometimes so large that they can be seen from Earth, according to NASA.
The robot was sent on a two-year mission to find out if Mars ever had the right environmental conditions to support life in its early history.
Since landing on Mars in 2012, Curiosity has roamed Gale crater and discovered a lake that could have contained water billions of years ago and an environment that could have supported microbial life.
The rover has gone through a lot and looks, but it should not be discouraged by its fading glow.
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