New milestone: NASA's Curiosity rover completes 2,000 days on Mars

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

New Delhi: NASA's Mars Curiosity rover has achieved a new milestone as it completes 2,000 days on the Martian surface.

The US space agency has released an image of a mosaic that provides a scenic view of Mount Sharp, the mound Curiosity has been climbing since September 2014.

The image was taken by the rover in January 2018 and also offers a preview of what comes next.

According to NASA, Mars Curiosity landed in August 2012 and has traveled 11.6 miles (18.7 kilometers) in that time. In 2013, the mission found evidence of an ancient freshwater-lake environment that offered all the basic chemical ingredients for microbial life.

The science team of the rover is eager to analyze rock samples pulled from the clay-bearing rocks seen in the centre of the image.

Recently, Curiosity started testing its drill again on the Red Planet for the first time since December 2016.

As per a report, a new process for drilling rock samples and delivering them to the rover's onboard laboratories is still being refined in preparation for scientific targets like the area with clay minerals.

Curiosity has examined environments where both water and wind have left their marks, after reaching Mount Sharp in 2014.

After studying more than 600 vertical feet of rock with signs of lakes and groundwater, Mars Curiosity's international science team has concluded that habitable conditions lasted for at least millions of years.