The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter was able to photograph the rover Curiosity, which at that time was searching for clay minerals in the ground at the foot of Sharpe Mountain. Thanks to the HiRISE camera, it was possible to distinguish the “head” of the rover on the mast.
"Curiosity" began working on the surface of the Red Planet in 2012 as part of the NASA mission "Martian Scientific Laboratory." Its purpose is to study the geological history and atmosphere of Mars, for which it is equipped with many scientific tools. From the moment it landed in the Gale crater, the rover was moving towards the foot of the five-kilometer Sharpe Mountain - the central elevation of the crater, covered with a layer of eroded sedimentary rocks. In early April 2019, the rover began drilling at the foot of the mountain as part of the search for clay minerals, signs of which were recorded in the surface layer of the soil by the orbiters before the rover disembarked, and could detect them, which will establish when and how they were formed. In addition, "Curiosity", working together with other devices, must solve the riddle of the appearance of methane bursts in the atmosphere of Mars, which were recently recorded most recently.
In the image in extended colors, the rover looks like a bluish spot, inside which there are several bright dots. The largest of them is a 2.1-meter mast of the rover, which has two cameras and a meteorological station. The remaining bright spots are well reflecting the elements of the rover design. The ridge of Vera Rubin is visible to the north of the apparatus, and to the northeast there are dark sandy regions.