Mars is currently on the other side of the sun and communications with the rovers and orbiters are not possible for a couple more weeks.
So I'm taking this opportunity to share a few of my favourite images acquired during the mission.
This rather scenic path to the 5 kilometer high Martian mountain called Aeolis Mons (aka Mt Sharp) passes the Murray Buttes that are seen here on the right side of this cropped mosaic using just 8 overlapping mast camera images that I assembled using MS ICE.
While at this location the rover drilled into the mudstone bedrock on the surface of the Murray formation and obtained a sample of powdered rock for analysis from a target called 'Marimba'. The raw images were acquired on mission Sol 1419 (August 03, 2016). Just 2 sols before Curiosity Rover celebrated its 4th anniversary on the planet Mars, landing on August 05, 2012 (PDT) I have stretched the colours and contrast to highlight the terrain on the Buttes and the flanks of the mountain.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Agreed 3000 km is only a short distance, especially when you consider the Mars / Earth distance is currently over 360.12 million km
I recall asking my teacher the same question regarding trigonometry for when I'd need it in real life :) And here I am today LOL
If I have issues with my Pythagorean theorem formulas in Libreoffice Calc (a^2^ + b^2^ = c^2^), I'll certainly ask you for her number :)
'Calc' does a pretty good job of calculating their positions based on their positions reported by JPL after each drive. But I really should update my formulas to include the nominal curvature of the surface of the planet, as that would certainly increase their distance apart :)