NASA did not give Curiosity a new firmware update exactly on its 13th anniversary. The rover’s major flight-software upgrade was completed in April 2023; NASA’s August 2025 anniversary report described additional capabilities developed over several years. Together, they show how software has helped the rover drive more efficiently, protect its wheels, and conserve power.
When Curiosity’s major software upgrade happened
NASA/JPL reported that Curiosity’s major software upgrade was completed on April 7, 2023, with science and imaging operations paused from April 3 through April 7 while the work was performed. NASA published its account on April 13, 2023. The 13-year landing anniversary came later: NASA marked it in an article dated August 4, 2025. The milestones are related, but the 2023 upgrade was not installed in 2025 or on the anniversary. (NASA/JPL, April 2023; NASA/JPL, August 2025)
“Firmware update” is a familiar shorthand, but this was mission flight software for a Mars rover, not a consumer-device download. JPL’s technical paper identifies the consolidated flight-software release as R13. Proposed in April 2016 and approved for flight use in September 2022, R13 followed a 2.25-year testing campaign and consolidated earlier patches while adding and improving capabilities. (NASA JPL Robotics, 2022)
What the 2023 upgrade changed
NASA reported about 180 changes in the upgrade. They addressed the accumulated complexity of patches installed since Curiosity landed in 2012, corrected some messages sent between the rover and Earth, improved driving and robotic-arm motion planning, made the mast-mounted “head” point more accurately, and made future patch uploads easier. (NASA/JPL, April 2023)
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Less time waiting between drive segments
Curiosity drives in segments and pauses to process terrain images between them. Unlike Perseverance, it does not have a dedicated computer for continuous visual navigation. NASA said the new software reduced image-processing pauses from about a minute to “just a moment or two.” Less waiting means more time moving and less daily energy spent idle; it does not make Curiosity as fast as Perseverance.
Jonathan Denison, Curiosity engineering operations team chief at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, put the distinction plainly: “This won’t let Curiosity drive as quickly as Perseverance, but instead of stopping for a full minute after a drive segment, we’re stopping for just a moment or two.”
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New commands for some waypoint drives
The upgrade added two mobility commands that let Curiosity drive in an arc toward a waypoint with less steering. For suitable routes, that can help the rover reach its target sooner and reduce steering-related wheel wear. It is one part of a wider effort to manage wheel forces, not a guarantee that wheels will never be damaged.
How Curiosity’s driving software works
Curiosity’s control system is distributed across onboard computers. The Rover Compute Element runs the rover flight software on a RAD750 processor using VxWorks. Separate SPARC processors in the Rover Motor Control Assembly run motor-control flight software. Human rover planners choose routes and define constraints; onboard autonomy helps the rover travel to waypoints, avoid designated keep-out zones, and assess terrain from stereo images. (NASA JPL Robotics, Surface System Software and Rover Navigation)
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One important capability is visual odometry: the rover compares images taken before and after a driving step to estimate how far it moved and detect slippage. JPL’s project page says visual odometry has been used on more than 90% of Curiosity drives and succeeded in 99.6% of its first 20,682 attempts. Those figures describe this specific navigation function and its recorded attempts, not the success rate of every autonomous task. (NASA JPL Robotics)
Wheel protection is about controlling forces
Curiosity’s aluminum wheels showed broken tread by 2013. JPL developed terrain-adaptive wheel-speed control that uses real-time information about wheel contact and suspension to adjust individual wheel speeds, with the aim of reducing forces and slippage on rough ground. Curiosity already had an algorithm that adjusted speed in response to rocks to improve traction and reduce wear; the 2023 arc-driving commands complement this broader approach. (NASA/JPL, April 2023; NASA JPL Robotics, June 2017)
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In a force-torque sensor test reported by JPL in 2017, leading wheels experienced a 20% load reduction and middle wheels an 11% reduction. These are controlled-test measurements of wheel load, not evidence that Curiosity’s wheel wear on Mars fell by those percentages. (NASA JPL Robotics, June 2017)
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What NASA described at the 13-year mark
In its August 2025 anniversary report, NASA described later operational improvements aimed at conserving energy as Curiosity’s radioisotope power source produces less power over time. Engineers had begun studying safe combinations of activities in 2021. By the article’s publication, NASA said the rover had successfully demonstrated combinations on Mars, including communicating with an orbiter while driving, moving its arm, or taking images. The team also enabled Curiosity to go to sleep early when it finished the day’s allotted activities ahead of schedule, reducing the time and energy needed to recharge before its next plan. These capabilities were developed over several years; NASA’s account does not identify them all as part of the April 2023 R13 installation. (NASA/JPL, August 2025)
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At the time of that anniversary report, Curiosity had traveled 22 miles (35 kilometers) on Mars. Reidar Larsen, a NASA/JPL engineer who led a group developing the newer capabilities, described the shift toward more onboard responsibility this way: “It’s as if our teenage rover is maturing, and we’re trusting it to take on more responsibility.”
Why a rover needs continuing software work
A rover’s software has to support reliable operations across years of changing terrain, hardware wear, and power limits. Curiosity’s R13 update consolidated and improved flight software while making specific driving, planning, and maintenance tasks more efficient. Later operational capabilities addressed a different pressure: completing more useful work while managing a long-lived power source. Neither kind of change removes the role of human planners; instead, software lets the rover carry out bounded tasks and respond to conditions within the mission’s rules.
Curiosity Project Manager Kathya Zamora-Garcia of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory said of the 2023 upgrade: “The flight software is essential to our mission, so this is a big deal for our team.”
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