NASA’s Curiosity rover just recently finished its second year exploring Mars, and the red planet’s harsh environment has taken its toll. Rocky terrain, tricky sand dunes, and exposure to Martian dust storms have left the SUV-sized robot looking a little worse for wear as it continues its march towards its eventual goal, Mount Sharp.
Below is a before-and-after look at a variety of instruments and features on Curiosity and the wear they’ve endured during the rover’s first two years, made from images uploaded by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Each image is either from the MAHLI imager or the Mastcam, and is also labeled with the Sol number (sol = one Martian solar day, the mission is currently on Sol 724) during which each image was taken.