An 8.5 years time-lapse video of Curiosity Rover Driving and Drilling on Mars and its location/position. From Martian Day (Sol) 16 to 3,071 (Aug 22, 2012 to March 27, 2021).

The video was made by using images and data provided by NASA.

Curiosity Rover is a car-sized Mars rover designed to explore the Gale crater on Mars in order to find out if the crater has ever offered favorable environmental conditions for microbial life, and perform planetary habitability studies in preparation for human exploration.

Curiosity was launched on November 26, 2011, from Cape Canaveral. Using a series of complicated landing maneuvers never before attempted, the rover landed on Mars on August 6, 2012, at Aeolis Palus, a plain between the northern wall of Gale crater and the northern foothills of Aeolis Mons.

The rover’s mission duration was supposed to be two years. But in December 2012, its mission was extended indefinitely.

The Curiosity rover is the most technologically advanced rover ever built before. It is equipped with 17 cameras and a robotic arm with a suite of specialized laboratory-like tools and instruments.

Credit: NASA/JPL